


A Lever Long Enough

by ladyphlogiston



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Changing Perspective, Culture Shock, Dueling, F/M, Fish out of Water, Football | Soccer, Gen, Long-Distance Relationship, Manners Dissonance, Muggle Culture, Muggles, OFC is not a self-insert or Mary Sue I promise, Protective Siblings, Research party, Siblings, Strategy, Triwizard Tournament, What was with 90s fashion, Wizarding Culture (Harry Potter), except for a nice MLT, how did this get so long, movies - Freeform, teenage friendships, teenage relationships, true Slytherin, true love is the greatest thing in the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:22:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 76,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27685538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyphlogiston/pseuds/ladyphlogiston
Summary: "That was the muggle movie E. T. If you want to know how it ends, make friends with a muggle. Have a pleasant summer."
Relationships: Daphne Greengrass & Theodore Nott & Blaise Zabini, Daphne Greengrass/Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott & Harry Potter, Theodore Nott & Nott Sr., Theodore Nott/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 76
Kudos: 58





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like I've been working on this for an eternity, and I am greatly relieved that it is finally done and I can post it. To be fair, the concept first occurred to me in early 2017, and I started writing it in June 2019, so it has been over a year.
> 
> This story is completely written and edited, with 22 chapters and an epilogue, and a final wordcount of a little over 75k. I'll be posting a new chapter every few days and/or whenever I feel like it.
> 
> Many, many, many thanks to my beloved husband, who edited this thing for me so I didn't have to. Naturally, all mistakes are his :)

"Don't panic."

The letters floated on the wall in large, friendly letters. Theo Nott turned his head, trying to figure out where he was.

He was in a plush armchair, and his hands and waist seemed to be stuck in place, probably with a sticking charm. A dozen other students were similarly glued to other armchairs in a semicircle facing one wall. He saw Blaise and Daphne nearby, which wasn't surprising, since they'd been together when they'd been stunned. Most of the others were fellow Slytherins, but Terry Boot and Morag MacDougal were Ravenclaws, and Ron Weasley was glaring from across the room.

The words on the wall were erased and replaced. "You are safe. Your wands are safe and will be returned to you in approximately two hours. In the meantime, you have been charmed with Ehrlenmeyer's Custos Routine in addition to the Silencing and Sticking charms."

Theo glanced down and was able to discern the familiar faint pink aura around his waist. That was probably a good sign.

The words changed again. "What you are about to see is a form of muggle entertainment called a movie. The story it tells is fictional. As lifelike as it may seem, these events did not happen."

Theo rolled his eyes a bit as the lights dimmed and the wall turned black. Of course he knew what a fictional story was. How lifelike could it be?

The room filled with odd, echoing sounds, and the words "E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial" appeared in a different script, this time with purple letters. Theo allowed himself to relax, thinking.

Theo was certain that Draco would blame this on Dumbledore and was busily fuming about it, but that's because Draco had no subtlety. Dumbledore, for all his pro-muggleborn rhetoric, had never introduced muggle activities into Hogwarts, and had never defended those who tried. It was highly unlikely that Dumbledore would capture students and force them to watch a muggle entertainment. Most of the students in the room were fellow third years, so either a third year was behind this or whoever was behind it was doing it by year. If it was a third year....Granger, perhaps. Maybe Finch-Fletchley. But it seemed more likely that it was being done by older students, and they had separated the years.

The letters were slowly replaced by images, and Theo was increasingly astounded. The movie was like a photo, except that it kept going and going, and it was in color, and it had sound. And Theo wasn't at all sure that E. T. was a real creature, but he couldn't imagine how the muggles included him in the photo if he wasn't.

Theo's head was spinning. The movie itself was a revelation, and the muggle culture was strange and sometimes confusing, but the story was enthralling and he found himself eager to know what happened next.

Theo was on the edge of his seat when Elliott and his friend biked across town. They rode over the first police car, but the crowd caught up with them and the police were blocking the street and....the movie stopped.

The lights went up. One or two people groaned, but most controlled their dismay at the interruption of the muggle movie.

The wall was once again covered with words. "That was the muggle movie E. T. If you want to know what happened next, make friends with a muggle. Have a pleasant summer."

\---

The next few days were rather tense, as nobody knew how freely to discuss the muggle movie situation. Their wands had been returned as promised, along with a letter advising them that befriending a muggle would be easier if they were respectful, listened more than they talked, and ignored everything they might have read in the Muggle Studies textbook.

Draco and his bookends were dutifully pretending that nothing had happened. The Ravenclaws seemed to have their heads together more often, and Daphne said they were discussing ways of using magic to make movies. Rumor had it that a few people had asked muggleborn first years about E. T., though rumor never said what the reply had been.

\---

"So how would you befriend a muggle?" Daphne asked.

Theo and Blaise looked at her. They'd sealed the door of their train compartment, of course, but it seemed strange to say that so openly, after dancing around the subject for the last few days.

Daphne rolled her eyes. "We know each other far too well to be worrying about what we say in front of each other."

"That's fair." Theo tilted his head. "Do we want to befriend a muggle?"

"I admit I'm curious," Daphne replied, "and clearly they're capable of more than we realized. Prudence dictates that we learn more."

That was Daphne for you, Theo thought to himself. She always had to know who knew what. It made her a valuable friend.

"I suppose it's just like befriending anyone else," Blaise said. "You watch them carefully, learning everything you can, and find subtle ways to imitate them in your staging so that when you introduce yourself, they feel your presence in their life is inevitable."

Theo frowned. Blaise was probably reciting a lesson from his mother, but it still sounded more complicated than that.

Just then, Granger's exasperated voice floated in through the door. "Of course I know, Ron, but I am not a muggle! Telling you would defeat the purpose..."

Theo smirked. At least Weasley was also clueless.

\---

Two weeks into the summer holiday, the three friends met together at Blaise's house.

"So I've been watching the muggles from my front gate," Theo said, pulling out a stack of parchment.

"I've been muggle-watching too, though I didn't take any notes," Blaise said, tan from his vacation in southern France.

Theo narrowed his eyes at Blaise. "I'm not sure admiring pretty girls counts as research, Blaise."

Blaise smirked.

Daphne grabbed at the top sheet of parchment. "You're lucky your estate is in a muggle city. We can barely see the muggle road from our gardens."

"It actually took a couple of days before I remembered I could see them," Theo said. "I don't usually go in that part of the garden. But I got Flippy to bring me a chair and desk, and she even set up an Extrasensory charm so I could hear what was said."

"Are you worried your father might find out?" Blaise asked.

Theo shrugged. "Not really. He mostly leaves me to my own devices since Mother died. And if he does, I'll just say I was gathering information and apologize."

Blaise flipped through Theo's detailed sketches of muggle clothing. "Clothes will be an issue."

Daphne nodded. "Our subfusc clothes might pass at night, but they're too different to properly blend in. How can we get muggle clothes?"

"I thought about asking Flippy to make some," Theo put in, "but she would only have my drawings to go on, and we wouldn't know if something was wrong. I think our best move is to get clothes from muggles."

"There must be muggle stores that sell clothes," Blaise pointed out.

"Sure, but what do we wear to go buy something?" Theo asked.

"What's this?" Daphne interjected, holding up a list of words.

Theo took it from her. "Words I overheard and don't know what they are. Some of them I've figured out - you can see the annotations - but many of them will have to wait. For example, remember how the muggles in the movie would get from place to place in loud boxes on wheels? Turns out those are called cars."

"You know what we should do next?" Daphne asked, her eyes sparkling.

Theo narrowed his eyes at her. "What?"

"Go exploring!"

"Exploring in the muggle world? Without muggle clothes?" Theo asked, incredulous.

Daphne nodded. "With Disillusionment charms, of course."

"Well I guess it's safer if no one can see us. But what do you expect we'll find?" Theo asked.

"I don't know! But we'll never know if we don't look!" Daphne replied.

"She's got a point there, Theo," Blaise put in. "Do we have a better plan?"

\---

"I'm still not sure this is a good idea," Theo muttered.

"It'll be fine, Theo! We'll each walk in a direction for a few minutes, and then come back. We'll be invisible! What could happen?" Daphne insisted, dancing impatiently.

Theo sighed deeply, but cast the Disillusionment Charm on Daphne and Blaise. Blaise returned the favor, and they set off in different directions.

The Muggle world was very strange, Theo decided, and he was not at all sure he liked it. Despite the fading sunlight, the air was hot and still. Instead of the whirs and chimes of magic, he heard voices and jangling bits of music and the constant rush of cars in the distance. The dull gray and tan houses all seemed austere and rigidly upright, and most of them had gardens with strangely stiff shrubs and grass. But a few had cultivated flowers, and Theo spotted interesting touches here and there: damask-patterned curtains in one window, and a door that was colored bright teal instead of the usual white or brown.

Several houses had long thin ropes stretched across their backyards, with the household's clothes hanging from them. Theo couldn't imagine why.

Theo turned a corner, and there it was. A muggle store. He'd never seen one before. Actually, it was several muggle stores in a row, but the one nearest the corner was the largest and brightest.

The store said PRIMARK across the top, and the window display had strange, almost faceless statues dressed in muggle clothes, along with large and brightly colored unmoving photographs of muggles. Peering carefully through the open door, Theo could see shelves and racks of clothes for sale, with other, more mysterious displays beyond that.

The prices gave Theo pause. He had no idea how muggle money worked. That, at least, would be easy to remedy.

\---

Theo was the first one back. He dispelled the Disillusionment Charm, and then called his house elf.

Flippy immediately appeared, bowing slightly. "Master Theo is calling Flippy?"

"Yes, Flippy, I want you to get 20 galleons from my desk upstairs, take them to Gringotts, and have the goblins convert them into muggle money. I also want a list of the different types of money muggles use, and how much each one is in our money."

"Yes, Master Theo," Flippy said, bowing and vanishing.

Theo relaxed a little. Flippy wouldn't tell his father unless asked directly, and the goblins didn't care. Getting muggle money would be one step closer to their objective.

Daphne got back a minute later.

"What did you see?" Theo asked her.

Daphne shrugged. "Mostly more muggle houses. They're very bland, aren't they? One family has a pet wolf, though. I saw it in the window. And eventually I got to a road where the cars go very fast. It was a little frightening, honestly, because they were so loud and got so close to me. But I don't think that's useful to us."

Theo pulled out a blank sheet of parchment and began sketching a map of what he had seen. "I found a store where they sell muggle clothes and other things. It's not far. I sent my house elf to Gringotts to get some muggle money, in case we have a chance to use it."

Daphne took the map and added what she had seen to it. "Shopping in a muggle store would be an interesting experience. I don't know if I like their clothes, though. They look so boxy and inconvenient."

"Yes, but we need muggle clothes if we want to talk to muggles. We can't wear our robes."

Daphne nodded in agreement but said nothing.

"I found a library!" Blaise announced, looking smug as he walked in.

"Muggles have libraries?" Daphne asked.

"Of course they have libraries," Blaise replied, throwing himself onto a couch. "This one is only a short walk away and it says 'Littlemore Library' over the entrance."

Theo passed Blaise the map. "They have books, so I suppose libraries are to be expected. How big did it look?"

"Hard to say, really. I couldn't go in, of course. The inside looked smaller than the outside would suggest, too. Smaller than the Hogwarts library, at least." Blaise sketched in the location of the library, then added the beginning of a road to one side. "I saw some muggles our age with that black-and-white ball of theirs coming from this way. They must play their sport - what do they call it again? - they must play it over there somewhere."

"Footie, I think," Theo responded absently. "They kick the ball a lot, so maybe the game is named after feet." A whole muggle library. They could learn so much! They could find out how to play footie, and how cars work, and where the trash went......

"We should do this again, tomorrow night or early the next day," Theo announced, sitting up suddenly.

Daphne looked puzzled. "Why?"

"Because the day after tomorrow is Thursday, and on Wednesday night all the muggles put large containers, and sometimes other objects, next to the street, and on Thursday at around ten o'clock a huge car labeled 'Pratt Trash Management' comes and men empty all the containers into the car and it drives away. It's how muggles get rid of things they don't need!"

Blaise raised an eyebrow. "And how, exactly, does that help us?"

Theo grinned at him. "They throw away all sorts of things! There was a whole chair once, that would have been fine with a Reparo or two, that the house with the striped flag over the door threw away. There might be clothes we could use!"

Daphne looked excited. "And then we could go exploring properly!"

Just then, Theo noticed Flippy standing quietly at the entrance, looking nervous. "Flippy, do you have the muggle money?" he asked.

Flippy came forward and held out a money sack and a folded piece of parchment. "Flippy is having the muggle monies for Master Theo, and also the list of Muggle monies. The goblinses is saying the cost of Muggle monies is always changing a little, and the list will change too. Flippy is hoping Flippy did right....." Flippy trailed off, tugging her ears nervously.

"What are you uncertain about?" Theo asked.

"The goblinses is asking whether Master Theo is wanting a list of the Muggle monies used in this country, or all the muggle monies everywhere, and Flippy said just the Muggle monies in this country."

"That's fine, Flippy, I don't need to know about muggle money in other countries," Theo replied. "Out of curiosity, did the goblins say how many kinds of money the muggles everywhere have?"

"Hundreds, Master Theo," Flippy answered, her eyes widening at the thought.

"Just as well, then," Blaise interjected.

"Indeed. You may go, Flippy." Theo opened the parchment. "Hmmmmm."

Daphne drifted over and pulled open the money bag. "What's all this parchment stuff?" she asked, holding up a handful of pieces of paper.

"It appears that the muggles use those as money," Theo replied, looking puzzled. "This is a ridiculous system!"

Blaise came over and helped Daphne spread out the muggle money. There seemed to be quite a lot of it. "How does it work?" he asked.

"Well, they use pounds and pence. There's one hundred pence in a pound, which is a ridiculous number but I suppose we'll adjust. A pound is about 16 Knuts, so half a sickle, and a knut is about six of their pence," Theo explained, looking at the parchment.

"But there's far more kinds of money here than just that," Daphne objected.

"Right, because apparently they have coins worth more than one pound or more than one pence!" Theo replied, gesticulating wildly. "It's ridiculous! The little copper ones are one pence, and the bigger copper ones are two pence. The silver ones are five pence, ten pence.....we're never going to keep it all straight!"

"They do seem to be labeled, so perhaps that will help," Blaise suggested, closely examining a fifty-pence coin.

"I suppose. And then the coins with gold and silver (though the goblins say it isn't real gold or silver) are one pound and two pounds, and the pieces of parchment are called 'notes' and they're 5, 10, 20, and 50 pounds."

Daphne began sorting the bills. "I suppose they must do figuring constantly to pay for things. I don't think I've done any figuring in years."

"I've done some, to keep track of my money and to help Father with the estate," Theo said. "We'll just have to get slate and stylus and work it out a few times. The good thing is that muggle clothes are quite cheap. I saw shirts for only five pounds in that store!"

\---

Daphne was back first from their next exploration. Theo found her poring over a magazine.

"Find anything good?" he asked.

"Mostly magazines. This one seems to be their version of _Witch Weekly_. Did you know muggles have cosmetic potions?" Daphne replied, not looking up.

"Muggles can't make potions."

Daphne waved her hand dismissively. "So they have something similar. They have all sorts of different lip potions, in all sorts of colors. I've never seen so many. And they have....I can't quite make out what it is, exactly. It seems to be a rock that they crush, and then use it to color their eyelids." She held out the page, pointing to a square case with colored blocks in it.

Theo peered at it. "I think I may have found one of those, or something like it," he said, turning to dig through the school bag he'd put his finds in. "We can give it a try."

"I don't think boys use it," Daphne replied. "All the pictures are girls, and the section about JTT's skin routine doesn't say anything about cosmetics, just lotions."

Theo found the little case full of broken rocks and powder and applied a quick Reparo. Sure enough, the colored powder reformed itself into little blocks like the one in the picture. "Who is JTT?"

"I don't know. Some sort of celebrity. It says he is very hot and 'voiced Simba' and his favorite snack is a Snickers, but I don't know what any of that means."

"Muggles are strange." Theo began pulling out some of his other finds. The pair of dark glasses with brightly-colored frames was easy enough to fix, but when he reparo'd the broken footie ball, it didn't swell to be properly round again. He studied it thoughtfully.

"Do you know what I do want to try?" Daphne asked. "I want to try this stuff called mascara. The muggles have something to make your eyelashes longer and darker."

"Really?" Theo sat up to peer at the page. "How do you put a potion on your eyelashes?"

Daphne turned the page. "I don't know. Most of the pictures are just the colored vial, but this picture has this odd little brush thing, so maybe you use that?"

Theo shrugged. "If we can figure out the muggle clothes issue, maybe we can find a way for you to try it." He turned back to the broken ball. It felt rather like an empty money sack. Perhaps it needed something inside it? Focusing carefully, he cast Engorgio on the unseen insides. The ball swelled.

Theo stood up and awkwardly kicked the ball, as he'd seen the muggles do. It bounced away quite satisfactorily, and hit Blaise on the shin as he came in.

"Oy! Give me a hand here!" Blaise called, his arms filled with one of the strange crinkly sacks muggles used for trash.

"Sorry," Theo said, and quickly levitated the sack into the middle of the room. "What's in there?"

Blaise grinned. "I found clothes!"

Daphne dropped the magazine and bounced up. "Really? What sort?"

"I don't know, really. I only took out a few things before I decided to take the whole bag. They seem to be stained and torn, but it didn't look like anything that couldn't be fixed. Whatever muggles use for mending must not work as well as magic."

Theo pulled out a pair of heavy blue trousers. They were badly torn, but he repaired them easily. He held them up against his waist.

Blaise studied him. "They're a little big, I think."

"Maybe Flippy can make them fit," Theo replied. As he started to lay them aside, he felt something solid inside the material. A little exploration revealed three stiff lightweight disks in one of the pockets.

Theo studied them, puzzled. Each one had the word "POG" on one side, in a large angular script. On the other side, one had a caricature of a pig, one had an odd design with lines of rainbow color, and one had a photo of a man's face. He couldn't imagine what they could possibly be for.

"Was there anything about these disks in the magazine you read, Daphne?" he asked, holding them out so she could see. Blaise and Daphne each picked one up, clearly just as puzzled as he was.

"I don't think so," Daphne said.

"Muggles like strange things," Blaise commented. He held up a shirt with short sleeves and a picture on the front of a round-headed baby with colored circles where its eyes should have been. The word "radiohead" was written over the baby, partially obscured by a large dark stain.

"Sweet Nimue, what _is_ that?" Theo asked.

Daphne squinted at the picture. "Muggles don't have inferi, right? Because that looks like an inferius baby."

"It might be a homunculus, but I don't think muggles have those, either," Theo commented.

"Creating an inferius is extremely dark magic, so no, muggles don't have inferi. Or homunculi," Blaise replied. "I have no idea what it is. I also can't get the stain out."

Daphne recoiled. "I'm not wearing that!"

"I think it fits me, so I might. Maybe Theo's house elf can get it clean," Blaise said, putting it on the chair next to him.

Theo called Flippy and directed her to work on the clothes, and the four of them sorted through the rest of the sack. Eventually they all had complete muggle outfits. Theo and Blaise had blue trousers, which the magazine called jeans, and short-sleeved shirts. Blaise seemed oddly fond of the inferius baby shirt, and Theo has settled on one with blue and yellow stripes. Daphne wore jean shorts and a shirt with a flower print and no sleeves at all, just thin straps to keep the shirt in place. She hunched her shoulders, unaccustomed to the skimpy cut. The clothes fit oddly, but after comparing them to the pictures in the various magazines, they concluded that they were supposed to fit that way.

They even had shoes: Daphne had found and fixed a pair of flip-flops, and Theo had found a pair of very worn sneakers, which they fixed, duplicated, and adjusted to fit his and Blaise's feet. Daphne complained that the flip-flops felt extremely strange, but one of the magazines had a page depicting girls with colored toenails and rings on their toes wearing flip-flops, so she resigned herself and said she would color her toenails that night.

\---

They approached the library rather nervously. They'd practiced wearing their muggle clothes, but they still felt strange and boxy.

There had been quite a bit of discussion about the details of their appearance. Theo and Blaise had foregone cosmetic potions and combed their hair carefully, imitating the parted hair they saw in the magazines. Their hair was a little longer than muggle styles, but cutting it shorter seemed impractical. It would just have to do.

Daphne's appearance was even more complicated. She'd colored her toenails red and applied her usual pink lip potion. After some discussion, they decided her favorite silver choker necklace would pass for muggle. She'd tried the eyeshadow, but it looked so odd she decided to go without.

("After all, if the magazine is like our _Witch Weekly_ , not everyone really does everything in it," she decided.)

They were as ready as they could be, so they'd decided to venture into the library for the first time today. The doors opened and they passed through.

All three of them stopped, surprised by the new sensations. The light was a strangely gray color, and the air was filled with unfamiliar smells. The library was quiet, but instead of the soft rustling of the books there was a very faint buzzing noise, punctuated by soft clicking and the occasional page turning.

"Wait a minute," Blaise whispered suddenly, turning to look back at the doors in puzzlement, "how did the doors open?"

Theo and Daphne looked at the doors. "You're right," Theo whispered back, "I hadn't even thought of it! How do they open without magic?"

Blaise shook his head. "More mysteries. What do we do now?"

They looked around. There was a desk straight ahead, with a few muggles working behind it. Around them, the books were on metal shelves, and there were a few signs, but they had no idea how to find anything.

"Can I help you?" said a muggle woman from behind the desk.

Hesitantly, Theo approached the desk. "Hello. My name is Theo Nott. My friends and I.....your library is not arranged like the library at our school."

The librarian raised her eyebrows. "I see. Well, let me give you a quick tour." She walked around the desk and came out to lead them around. "Over there is the reference section," she explained, pointing. "We have encyclopedias and dictionaries and an atlas and other references there. Those books cannot be checked out, but you are welcome to consult them here. The fiction section is over there, with new arrivals on the front shelf. And the nonfiction is here, arranged using the Dewey Decimal System." She stopped in front of a strange glowing box with a shelf of small tablets in front of it. "We use a computerized card catalog system here. So if you wanted to know about....?" she raised an eyebrow, waiting for them to speak.

"Footie, I guess?" Theo offered.

She nodded and began pressing the small tablets, making a clicking noise each time. Leaning closer, Theo could see that each one was marked with a letter, and the corresponding letter appeared on the box. "So you type in 'football' and click the search button, and it pulls up the books we have," the librarian said. She pointed out the call number below one of the books, and then led them to the section of the shelves with the corresponding number.

"And that just about covers it. Do let me know if you need anything else," she finished, giving them a quick smile before heading back to her desk.

"Okay," Theo said when she was gone, twisting around. "This doesn't look that large, and the sections are marked at the end of each row. Let's split up and see what's on each shelf." He grabbed a couple of books about football, and brought them to a nearby table. "We can meet here when we're done."

"I'm going to look at the reference section," Blaise said. "An encyclopedia sounds useful."

Blaise walked off, and Daphne and Theo split up. Theo passed a section which seemed to be mostly poetry, and found that beyond that was a section for history. He selected several books, hoping that learning a bit about muggle history would be helpful. History was apparently the last section, so he circled around and found a section with books about philosophy and religion. He skipped through those and discovered the next section was about muggle law and government, which seemed more likely to be useful. There were even a few books about muggle etiquette, and he scooped up all of those.

Daphne was at the table already, with books about muggle buildings, fashion, and one about "chemistry," whatever that was. Theo opened it at random, but couldn't make any sense of it.

"What is this?" he asked.

"I don't know, but there was a whole row of muggle sciences, and I felt I ought to take something. It says it's for beginners, so maybe we'll try it," Daphne replied.

Theo shook his head and sat down to read about the muggle government. It seemed awfully complicated.

"Theo, you need to talk to the librarian," Blaise announced, dropping into his seat.

"Why?"

"Because I asked how one checks books out and it turns out you need a 'library card' and only people who live nearby can get one. So you have to go get one." Blaise leaned forward, flipping through the books they'd picked up. "The encyclopedia is brilliant, by the way," he added, settling back with a book about etiquette. "It has information about practically everything muggle."

"I'll go talk to the librarian now," Theo decided. "And we'll come back tomorrow with a list of things to look up, and parchment so we can take notes."

Blaise frowned. "Not parchment, I don't think. I saw a couple of muggles writing, and they use books with thinner sheets, and black or white styluses. Maybe we can buy some at that store of yours."

Theo sighed and went off to talk to the librarian. There seemed to be no end to the number of things muggles did differently.

Acquiring a library card went fairly well. Theo did know his house's street address, and when he wasn't sure of his postal code the librarian seemed to assume he had just moved in and filled it in for him. He didn't have a phone number either, but the librarian skipped it and said he should come back and update his information "once it gets hooked up." A few minutes later, he was holding a palm-sized rectangle of stiff, smooth material.

Theo got back to find his friends arguing heatedly.

"We can't possibly be made up of tiny spinning spheres! We'd have noticed!" Blaise hissed.

Daphne leaned forward, eyes sparkling. "Apparently they're too little to see, even with strong magnification. I don't know how muggles have proved it, but think about it! It explains both Antigonus' Principle of Alchemical Immutability and Nephi's Transformation Vitality Law!"

"Why would we be made of tiny spinning spheres?" Theo asked, sitting down and tossing the card onto the table. What did muggles use to carry such things? They'd have to keep an eye out.

Daphne pushed the chemistry book towards him. "Muggles claim that everything that exists is made up of a few different arrangements of spinning spheres. I know it sounds crazy, but it actually explains some of the current questions in potions research. We have to check this book out, so I can compare it to my notes."

Theo shrugged. "Sure. The librarian says we can check out six books at a time, for two weeks or less. So I guess we each get to pick two books."

They made their selections and filed over to the desk. The librarian waved a black artefact over Theo's card and each book, causing red lights and beeping noises, and then handed him a slip of paper and announced they were all set.

"Well," said Daphne as the library doors inexplicably opened for them again, "they might not be wizards, but that checkout thing looked a lot more like a magic artefact than I'd expected."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was actually super excited to have them discover muggle makeup, and then walked smack into mid-90s fashion and its wide range of brown lipsticks. Such is life.


	2. Chapter 2

"We should get muggle writing books," Blaise said as they left the library.

"What, now?" Theo asked.

"Now," Blaise replied firmly. "We're going to have questions and notes from these books, and we'll want to bring our notes to the library. I'm not interested in copying them from parchment onto muggle writing books. So we should get them now."

"I'm game for continuing this adventure," Daphne chimed in. "We can drop the books at your house and grab the muggle money."

Theo shrugged. "Okay, if that's what you want. I haven't practiced the figuring much yet, but I guess the store keeper has to do most of it."

At Theo's house, they debated how much money to bring for a while, and eventually Theo put £50 in his pocket and Blaise put an additional £200 in his pocket, just in case.

They approached the Primark store cautiously. This door didn't open for them, so Daphne reached out and tugged on the strange metal handle. It opened easily, and they were startled by the blast of cool air from the inside.

The store was overwhelming. Racks and racks of items - some identifiable, some not - spread before them. Cacophonous music blared, with a singer proclaiming that he liked to "move it, move it." Nothing moved, other than one muggle arranging a shelf, and the stillness was slightly creepy.

Theo took a deep breath. "Okay," he whispered, "let's just walk through slowly."

Blaise nodded, and they set out together, looking over the shelves. As they drew level with the store employee, she looked up and asked, "Are you looking for something?"

Theo and Daphne froze, but Blaise stepped forward. "Do you have writing materials?" he asked.

"Stationary is against the left-hand wall through that door," she replied, pointing.

"Thanks," Theo said, and they smiled at her and moved off.

"Good thinking," he muttered to Blaise.

"I was trying to decide what to say on our way in," Blaise muttered back. "These muggles seem to be a helpful lot so far."

Just as they reached the back of the room, a display caught Theo's eye. The sign at the top said "Wallets," though they looked more like very small books, and the accompanying photo showed one being used to store muggle money and small cards like the library card.

Theo stopped and ran his fingers over them. They seemed quite well made for the price. Some had a chain attached, for storing cursed or dangerous items.

Theo paused. Muggles didn't have cursed items. What in Merlin's name was the chain for? Shaking his head, he selected a plain turquoise one and hurried to catch up with his friends.

As he passed through the doorway, the creepy stillness of the store started to get to Theo. In a wizarding stationary store, the books would be gently rustling their pages, and the quills would have animation charms to make them spin or sway gently in their display. There would be proper moving photos and a few items showing off their color-changing charms. The signs might call out cheery greetings or smooth advertisements. Here, the wares lay on their shelves, inert and frozen. The only sound was the pounding muggle music. It felt rather like being surrounded by dead things.

Blaise and Daphne seemed less affected. Blaise had found a display of small brightly-colored plaques, and was reading them with a quizzical expression. Daphne had several muggle notebooks with decorated covers tucked under one arm, and she was examining a sheet of glittery images. Theo crossed to peer over her shoulder.

"What are they?" he asked.

"It says they're called stickers. I think they're just for decoration, but they're pretty," she whispered back.

Theo glanced at the display, tried briefly to remember how much 50p was in real money, and gave up. "It doesn't look like they're expensive. You could get them."

"I might." Daphne tucked the stickers into the hand that was holding the notebooks, and reached for a package of pens. "I don't quite see how these work, but they're obviously for writing with. We'll get a couple of kinds and figure it out."

Theo nodded and glanced back towards where Blaise had been, but Blaise wasn't there anymore. Theo glanced around and still didn't see him. Frowning, Theo stepped back towards the room they'd come from.

Blaise was standing and apparently examining the display of wallets carefully, but Theo knew that pose. He was spying on something or someone. Theo raised an eyebrow at him, but Blaise just glanced up at him and cut his eyes back towards the door. He didn't want Theo to draw attention to him. Theo returned to Daphne.

"Anything else we want?" he asked.

"There's some cosmetics over there," Daphne replied, nodding towards the far wall. "I thought I might try to work out that eyelash stuff."

Theo transferred her notebooks to his arms and stacked the stickers, pens, and wallet on top. "Go ahead. Get a couple of them, so we can all try."

Theo waited, looking at the myriad of muggle devices displayed on the shelves. Tape was surprisingly familiar, but he couldn't make out what a stapler was supposed to do, and the small packages of magnets were equally mysterious. And then there were more notepads, with witty sayings or pre-printed lists on them. Muggles were certainly mysterious.

"Where's Daphne?" Blaise asked, appearing at Theo's elbow.

"She went to get muggle eyelash potion," Theo responded. "What were you doing?"

Blaise folded his arms and smiled cockily. "I was working out how muggles buy clothes. A couple of muggle girls were shopping, so I watched them."

"And?"

"The clothes are marked with either a number or a size designation inside them, or on a slip of paper on the sleeve. I don't know how you know which one to look for, since they both already knew. They selected garments and then went through that curtain in the side wall to what they called a 'changing room' to try them on."

"What happens in there?" Theo asked, curious.

Blaise shrugged. "I couldn't follow them, but I could hear bits and pieces and it sounds like they put the clothes on to see if they fit. They can't adjust the size the way we can, so if clothes don't fit they just don't buy them."

Theo frowned. "That's a ridiculous system."

Blaise shrugged again. "That's muggles for you."

"You know, I think some of the magazines and catalogs had instructions for finding your size," Theo added thoughtfully. "We'll have to take another look at them."

Just then Daphne returned, and they decided they had everything they wanted for the moment. Theo approached the counter a little hesitantly, eyeing the strange devices on it, but the muggle boy standing behind it caught his eye and greeted him politely, so he put down their purchases.

The boy began taking each item, waving it over his devices, and then placing them in a bag made of thin, crinkly material. The devices made a series of beeps and grinding noises, but they weren't that different from the checkout machine at the library and the muggle boy didn't seem concerned about them, so Theo figured they were normal noises.

At the last minute, Daphne handed Theo a small yellow and purple package labeled "Cadbury Flake." Theo looked at her quizzically but passed it to the muggle boy, who added it to their order.

"That'll be 47.84," the boy announced. Theo handed him the fifty-pound note, and the boy raised his eyebrow slightly but took it and pushed more buttons, causing the device to make more strange sounds. A drawer popped out, and the muggle boy counted out Theo's change and handed it to him, along with the bag.

"Thanks," Theo said, hastily shoving the muggle money in his pocket (and perhaps muggle pockets were more convenient than money bags, which had to be stored under your robe and tended to shift around) and taking the bag.

"Have a nice day," the muggle boy said, and they smiled back and left.

They passed out into the hot sun, and the door swung shut behind them. All three of them took a deep breath.

"We did it!" Daphne squealed, as quietly as she could in her excitement.

"I can't believe that worked," Theo said. "It did work, didn't it?"

Blaise shrugged. "None of the muggles appeared alarmed or suspicious. The store employee seemed slightly surprised by the fifty-pound note, but I don't think it was a bad slip. Perhaps he didn't expect young people to have so much money."

Daphne sped up. "Of course it worked! Come on, let's get back to your house and open it all up!"

\---

"I understand you visited a muggle store today, Theophanes," said his father at supper that evening.

Theo froze. He hadn't anticipated explaining their adventures to his father. Perhaps he should have.

Thaddeus Nott smiled slightly. "Did you think I make no effort to know the doings of my only son, nor consider the appearance of his actions?" he asked.

Theo's fingers twitched, but he knew better than to fiddle with the napkin or show any sign of uncertainty. "Of course not, Father. I must confess I have been somewhat thoughtless. Exploration of the muggle world was presented as a challenge, and I have been enjoying it as an adventure and a puzzle to unravel, but I had not given thought to the societal ramifications."

"That was indeed thoughtless," agreed Thaddeus.

"But I do not know that the ramifications would be so very bad," Theo continued, straightening in his chair. "While it is not our habit to have much intercourse with the muggle world, I do not believe it is unwise to learn about them. If nothing else, we must maintain sufficient knowledge of them to be certain that they do not plan some unexpected form of attack. Their methods are crude, of course, but as the tale of the Elder Wand warns its readers, a crude attack may yet succeed."

Thaddeus nodded, and leaned forward to lift his wine goblet. "Very well, Theo. Tell me what you have learned," he said.

Theo paused, trying to gather his thoughts and formulate a cohesive answer out of their investigations. "Muggles are very puzzling, Father. I have not yet learned enough to arrive at true conclusions. Their spaces are very different from ours. Our spaces are peaceful and full of life, and theirs are very still and yet filled with noises. They have a great many things, and they cannot or do not repair them, so much gets thrown away that we would keep. They have many, many things. Their manners are less formalized than ours, which is unsurprising given the frequent rudeness of their children at Hogwarts. Beyond that.....what I have read of their government sounds reasonably civilized, their football game sounds utterly dull, their pens are awkward to write with but do not need to be dipped in ink, and some of their cosmetics are interesting. Daphne has been reading about something called 'chemistry' which sounds like utter nonsense to me, but she says it may revolutionize alchemical theory, so perhaps it is not entirely valueless. I do not know that I have learned anything of importance as yet, but my exploration has been brief."

His father watched him carefully. "Then you believe further exploration of the muggle world would be wise?" he asked.

"I do, Father."

"Indeed."

They finished the meal in silence. Theo got the impression that his father was thinking deeply about something, but he did not ask what.

Eventually they rose from their seats, and Theo turned to return to his room. His father forestalled him. "Come with me, Theo."

Theo obediently followed his father. He expected to be led to his father's study, but instead they climbed the stairs to the master bedroom of the house. Thaddeus passed the bedroom door and proceeded down the hall to stop in front of an antique vase in a recess in the wall. He drew his wand and tapped the vase, murmuring under his breath, and the vase descended into the floor. A door appeared in the wall behind it.

Theo blinked in surprise. He was the heir of the house, and it was expected that he would know all its secrets. His father had never shared this one.

They passed through the secret door together. The room beyond was small. Three of the walls were lined with bookshelves, with a few small statues and trinkets breaking up the rows of books. The fourth wall had a comfortable armchair and a small table, set in front of south-facing windows. The room was utterly still.

Theo looked more closely at the shelves, frowning. The books made no noise. Many of them were leather-bound, but there were also many with stiff smooth paper bindings.

"Are these....are these muggle books, Father?" he asked.

"They are."

"I don't understand."

Thaddeus Nott sighed deeply and sat down in the armchair. He waved his wand, lazily conjuring a second seat for Theo, but he seemed to be deep in thought.

Finally he spoke. "Theo, you know I served the Dark Lord before you were born."

"Yes, Father."

"In the early days, I was proud to serve him. His power and his knowledge of magic were nearly unparalleled, and he promised to create a new magical culture, one greater and more beautiful than ever before.

"As time went on, I grew impatient. The Dark Lord seemed less interested in the wonders of magic than in the subjugation of lesser wizards and muggles. He brought others into our inner circle as well, others who delighted in destruction and pain rather than knowledge.

"I did not regret serving the Dark Lord, and every time he demonstrated his power I was eager to see more. But those occasions became more and more rare, and the fighting and torture became more and more common. Quite frankly, it was boring. It was also distasteful, of course, but I had become accustomed to blood in the early days. I didn't mind killing where it would be useful, but the endless slaughter that some of the more brutish members delighted in quickly became tedious to me."

Thaddeus paused, and Theo nodded, never taking his eyes from his father's face.

Thaddeus continued, "It was during this time that we attacked Stamford, in Lincolnshire. The raid went as it usually did - muggles in their night gear, screaming and crying, houses burning, the younger members of our ranks gleefully casting spells. An old muggle somehow broke free and grabbed at me as I was entering his house. I remember him so clearly: he had fine white hair that was standing up, looking like a white bird's nest, and his robe was torn so that I could see how thin his chest was. He must have been at least 120. He started babbling about his books, his irreplaceable first editions, begging me not to burn them. Then someone levitated him away and someone else cut his throat - Severus, possibly, he had a cutting charm he was rather proud of - and his blood spilled into the street and nearly splashed my robes.

"But even though he was gone, I found I was rather curious about the books he spoke of. We think of muggles as blind and unthinking, barely literate and completely unaware. The idea of muggle books was....well, it was a curiosity. So I looked for them in his house, and was rather surprised to find a library as pleasant as any you might find in a wizarding home. It was rather impulsive, but I shrank them down and called Flippy to bring them here before I set the house on fire."

Theo released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. His mind was whirling. "To bring them here?" he echoed, mostly to give himself time to think.

Thaddeus smiled slightly, looking around at the comfortable room. "Indeed. This was your great-grandmother's sewing room; she warded and hid it for times when your great-grandfather became violent. The password is 'gray bastion', and you may come and go as you wish."

Theo looked around at the shelves. Now that he was paying attention, he could see signs of wear on some of the books. "Have you read many of them?" he asked.

"Quite a few, actually," Thaddeus replied. "I didn't read them at first, of course; the Dark Lord is fond of the mind arts, and I feared what might happen if he found muggle writings in my mind. But after he disappeared, and things settled down, I came back for a closer look. Some of them are....quite fascinating, really. Quite fascinating, indeed."

Theo thought quietly for a few minutes. "Why are you telling me about this now?" he eventually asked. "You've never mentioned it before. I didn't even know there was a room here."

Thaddeus smiled slightly. "One reason is obvious, of course: you have been making your own discoveries. The other...the other reason is that you must be careful, Theo. If the Dark Lord returns, you will have certain decisions to make."

"You have always said the Dark Lord disappeared, rather than died," Theo said slowly. "Do you think he will return?"

Thaddeus breathed heavily, and then leaned forward and pulled back his sleeve. "Do you recognize this, Theo?"

Theo raised his eyebrows. On his father's arm was the symbol of a skull and snake, soft gray against the pale skin. "That's the Dark Mark, isn't it?"

"It is." Thaddeus dropped his sleeve back down over it. "You have not seen it before; do not trouble yourself for your lack of observation. When the Dark Lord was alive, it was pitch black. When he disappeared, it faded almost entirely. It was invisible unless it happened to catch the light just right, and even then you had to know where to look."

"Why is it showing now?" Theo asked.

Thaddeus clasped his hands in his lap. "I don't know. It stayed faded for ten years. Occasionally I would see it faintly, but then it would fade again. During your first year of Hogwarts, it appeared again, sometimes like this and sometimes darker. I was steeling myself to discuss it with you, but then a few days before the term ended, it burned painfully in the middle of the night and then faded to invisibility again. I don't know what happened. I discreetly discussed it with one or two of my old compatriots, but no one had anything concrete to offer."

"And now it's darkening again," Theo said, frowning thoughtfully.

Thaddeus nodded. "I first noticed it at the end of June."

They sat in silence, wrapped in their thoughts. Finally Theo spoke. "If the Dark Lord does return, what do you think I should do?"

Thaddeus fidgeted uncomfortably. "I'm afraid there is no clear choice this time. The Dark Lord is powerful, and his knowledge should not be underestimated. But as time passed, he became less rational. He sought immortality, you know, and boasted of how far he had ventured in that pursuit, and all my research indicates that pursuing immortality deprives one of one's reason. If he were to return, he might well be entirely mad."

"There is little profit in serving the Dark Lord, then," Theo commented, "if he will offer either boredom or madness."

"And yet there is much to be lost in refusing to serve him, as we are unlikely to withstand his wrath."

Theo tapped his fingers. "The politics are easy enough to predict. The people who fought him last time will do so again. The Malfoys will choose to serve him, if Draco's ranting is any indication, and most of the old families will fall into line. Even those who wish to stay neutral will pay tribute and lip service, if they cannot leave the country. A few may be like you, uninterested in pursuing the war again, but the ranks will easily be filled by those who are thirsty for prominence."

"Agreed. Well reasoned, Theo."

"I believe the estate would support an additional property, Father, if we chose to acquire a vacation home. Perhaps in France, or northern Africa?" Theo suggested. _Not anywhere in Durmstrang's jurisdiction_ went unspoken.

Thaddeus raised his brows. "A good suggestion, Theo. We might spend some time there this summer, in fact."

Theo nodded. "And in the meantime I believe I will continue my research, Father. You never know what use new knowledge will have."

Thaddeus rose to his feet. "A wise decision, Theo. And now I believe I will go to bed. It is late."

Theo rose also. "Good night, Father, and thank you."

Thaddeus walked to the door, and then turned back. "I have never ventured into the muggle world myself," he said thoughtfully, "but some of the books speak of various performances of stories and poems. If you were to come across something of that nature, I would not be averse to seeing it for myself."

Theo blinked. "If I do, I will inform you," he replied.

Thaddeus thanked him and passed into the hallway, leaving his son standing thoughtfully in the secret library.

\---

"My father asked me about our explorations last night," Theo said, breaking the quiet of the room.

Blaise and Daphne stopped what they were doing and looked up. Daphne instinctively started to wipe her muggle pen, then stopped herself and simply put it down between the chemistry book and her muggle notebook. Blaise had been attempting to master the muggle eyelash potion, and his eyes were ringed with black smears.

"Is he going to stop you?" Daphne asked.

Theo shook his head. "He doesn't object to it, actually, though he reminded me to consider the implications for our standing in the community. But the knowledge might be useful." Theo hesitated, then added, "He's also worried about what might happen if the Dark Lord comes back."

They sat quietly for a moment, thinking.

"Does your father have reason to think that likely?" Blaise asked quietly.

Theo hesitated. "He has reason to believe the Dark Lord is still alive, and possibly getting stronger. More than that I can't say." Theo knew he couldn't tell his friends about his father's Dark Mark.

Daphne bit her lip. "Then it's something to be worried about. Even if the Dark Lord doesn't come back, the conflict over blood might get worse if his former followers are expecting him."

"I'm not seriously worried about the Dark Lord, at least not for myself," Blaise said, crossing his arms and leaning back. "My mother spent most of the last war in Italy, and we'd probably go there again. It's the only sensible option, really. But if his former followers are getting stirred up, Malfoy is going to be even more tedious than usual this year."

Theo smiled. "Leaving is the most sensible option, if it comes to that. And in the meantime we'll just go on ignoring Malfoy, as always. He can't afford to let either of us beat him, and he's not good enough to be confident that he'll win if he takes us on, so I expect he'll ignore us in return."

Blaise frowned and pushed his chair forward so he could see Daphne's face. "What about you, Daphne? Will you be all right?"

Daphne shrugged. "It won't be pleasant, since I'll get caught in the crossfire between Pansy and Millicent and Tracey, but no one is likely to target me directly. I'm more concerned about the possibility of actual war. My family doesn't have anywhere to go."

Theo's brows drew together, thinking back. "Your family didn't support the Dark Lord, did they?"

"My parents don't like to talk about it, so I don't know everything. They certainly weren't marked or anything. My cousin Ozias says we did have to give a certain amount of support to the cause, though - contributing money and potions ingredients, letting them use our house, that sort of thing. But he was only twelve so he's not entirely certain either."

"You could always come with one of us, if it comes to that," Blaise said, smiling at her.

"Of course. And it might not," Daphne said cheerfully, returning to her books. "Next time can we get more of those muggle chocolate bars?"


	3. Chapter 3

"You know, I think we've gotten rather derailed," Blaise whispered to the others at the library the next day.

Daphne looked up from her notebook, where she was carefully drawing odd little figures with dots and circles and hexagons. "What do you mean?"

Blaise glanced around and lowered his voice even further. "Weren't we trying to meet someone?"

Theo chuckled, lowering his book.

"But-" Daphne started, looking down at her books.

"Yes, your chemistry is interesting," Blaise agreed, grinning at her, "and the stores are fun, and this book is excellent, by the way," he added, holding up the book he was reading, which was titled _How to Win Friends And Influence People_ , "and Theo is clearly enjoying...what are you reading, Theo?"

Theo glanced down at his book, wondering how to explain it. "It's fiction," he said after a minute, holding it up so they could see _Men At Arms_ on the cover, "and it's satire, and frankly it's mostly over my head and I probably shouldn't have started with satire. It was on the shelf labeled Bestsellers. I find I'm enjoying it."

"Fascinating," Blaise commented, peering at the illustration on the cover. "But in any case," he said, returning to the thread of his argument, "we set out to befriend...someone, and aside from a few trivial exchanges, we haven't so much as talked to anyone."

"Okay, what do you suggest?" asked Daphne.

"We have to figure out where people our age go," Blaise said firmly.

"Well, we did see some people heading out to play footie," Theo pointed out, "but then they'd want us to play, and our lack of experience might be an issue."

Daphne propped her chin in her hands, considering. "I don't know, it might be fun anyway. And we have a ball. We could practice kicking it at Theo's house."

They sat in silence for a minute, thinking.

"I think there's a bulletin board near the door," Blaise remembered eventually. "Theo, go see if it has anything useful."

"Why me?"

Blaise rolled his eyes and hissed, "Because you're supposed to be the local!"

Theo shrugged and got up. The bulletin board wasn't hard to find. Quite a few papers were for activities involving babies or small children, but he made sure to read all of them carefully.

A few of them seemed useful. "Friendly Fridays" were an event for meeting people over tea and biscuits, but he had no idea whether it would include people their age. Still, tea and biscuits might not be so bad. The "Dungeons and Dragons Club" was advertised specifically for teenagers and young adults, though dungeons and dragons sounded ominous. The third paper that caught his attention was for a performance: a play called _Othello_ being performed in a park. Perhaps Theo could see it with his father.

After some gentle exploration, Theo determined that the papers were held up by small objects with tiny spikes on the back. He carefully took down the announcement of the performance of _Othello_ and brought it to the librarian's desk. "Excuse me. Could you tell me where this is?"

The librarian leaned over to see what he was holding, and smiled. "Of course! My niece is playing Desdemona, so I put that up in case someone was interested. Let me draw you a map."

A few minutes later, Theo carefully tucked the map and a second copy of the paper (a flyer, the librarian had called it, and she used a large cabinet that purred and glowed to make a duplicate copy) into his pocket. He went back and reported his other findings to his friends.

They sat in silence, considering.

Eventually Theo spoke. "Seems to me that if we want to meet someone our age, we have a choice between the footie and some mysterious activity involving dragons. Of the two, I think footie is probably safer."

\---

Footie, Theo reflected as he dressed for dinner, might not be the disaster they had feared. They had reviewed the rules, and decided it wasn't that different from the Chaser's part in a game of Quidditch, so hopefully they'd be able to keep track of the game. Kicking the ball was awkward, and he didn't think any of them would soon achieve the smooth running kicks they saw muggles using in the street, but they had each managed to send the ball flying at least once or twice.

Theo adjusted his collar and turned to leave the room, scooping up the flyer and map for _Othello_ on his way out. _Othello_ promised to be much more enjoyable than embarrassing himself at an unfamiliar sport.

\---

"I found this today, Father," Theo said, passing over the two sheets of paper.

Thaddeus Nott lifted the pages carefully, reading them each. He smiled only slightly, but Theo could read his father's excitement in his eyes and the lines of his shoulders.

"I believe we have a copy of _Othello_ ," Thaddeus commented, setting the sheets down. "It is one of a set of plays and poetry by this William Shakespeare. I confess I found the plays rather difficult to understand, but the sonnets were singularly compelling."

"Perhaps we will understand it better for seeing it acted," Theo suggested.

"Indeed. And it will be an experience, no matter the outcome."

After a moment, Theo said, "We'll have to get muggle clothes for you, of course. I told Flippy to keep the ones we weren't using, so it shouldn't be difficult. You should practice wearing them, as they fit quite oddly."

Thaddeus assented, and asked how Theo and his friends had acquired muggle clothing. The conversation wound on, and Theo found himself speaking more openly with his father than he had in several years.

\---

The three of them practiced footie some more the next morning, but eventually Theo declared that they weren't getting any better and would just have to manage as best they could. They dressed carefully, in their muggle clothes, and read their library books in the front garden so they could keep an eye on the street.

Around mid-day, a group of muggle teens passed by on their way to the footie field, calling out to each other and passing the ball back and forth. Theo, Blaise, and Daphne watched them pass, and when they were several houses down, Blaise pushed open the gate.

The three of them set off, walking casually towards the field but not focusing on the group ahead of them.

As they turned the corner onto the street that would take them to the field, one of the muggle teens broke off to talk to a girl and a smaller boy in front of one of the houses. His friends went on without him.

Theo couldn't hear what the first teen said, but apparently it was something derogatory. They could clearly hear the girl reply, "Leave him alone, Jack!"

Coming closer, they saw that the girl was about their age, with blue eyes and dark blond hair pulled back in a braid. Anger had flushed her cheeks and made her eyes sparkle, and she held the shoulder of the boy, clearly her younger brother.

Jack sneered and chuckled nastily. "Always up to defend him, aren't you, shrimp? You ain't any bigger than the twerp here."

The girl swallowed and pulled her brother closer to herself. Before she found something to say, Theo spoke up.

"Always a pleasure to see those who have nothing but their size to boast of," he drawled.

Jack turned to look at him. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Theo Nott, at your service," Theo replied. He was tempted to bow, but Blaise had said muggles don't bow. He wasn't sure what to do instead, but forced his hands to stay still rather than betray nervousness.

Jack stepped forward, pushing into Theo's space. "This ain't your business, Theo Nott."

Theo raised one eyebrow. "I never said it was. But if you offer yourself so freely for my entertainment, I can hardly fail to notice, can I?"

Jack stuttered for a minute. His hands curled into fists, but he glanced at Daphne and Blaise on either side of Theo and seemed to reconsider. Finally he shoved Theo's shoulder and stomped off.

Theo turned to the girl, who looked indignant. "I totally had him handled," she said.

"I apologize for cutting in," Theo replied. "I didn't intend to interfere." He did his best to project sincerity. He didn't want to ruin their best opportunity yet, and he honestly hadn't intended to annoy her.

She looked at him for a moment, then extended her hand. "I'm Emily, Emily Harris, and this is my brother, Ace."

Theo shook her hand, then her brother's. "I'm Theo, and these are my friends, Daphne and Blaise."

Ace fidgeted, and Emily looked down at him. "Do you want to go to the field now?"

"They won't let me play, if Jack is there." Ace sighed.

Emily frowned in frustration. "It shouldn't work that way."

"But it does, Em," Ace said patiently.

Emily sighed and looked up. "Were you lot going to go play?" she asked.

Theo shrugged a bit. "We've never had much chance to play before, so we're probably not much good at it, but I'm new in town and it seemed better than staying at home. But if they won't let Ace play, they probably won't want us playing either."

"I could show you!" Ace offered eagerly. "There's a goal in the back, and I have a ball, and we could have snacks!"

Theo chuckled a little at Ace's enthusiasm. Glancing at Emily to make sure she didn't seem upset by the idea, he waved towards the gate behind them. "Sure, Ace, that sounds brilliant. Lead the way."

\---

The back yard was charming, Theo decided. A slate patio with chairs and a small table overlooked a patch of turf with an odd rectangular netted contraption at one end. Neat hedges defined the space, blooming sweet peas covered a trellis against the wall of the house, and a potted plant with small red fruit stood in a sunny corner.

Ace ran inside and returned with his football, and immediately began showing them how to "dribble" the ball. While the name was unappetizing, all three of them found the motion made somewhat more sense after seeing Ace demonstrate it.

After an hour of practice, all five of them were tired and sweaty. Emily invited Daphne to go into the house with her, and they returned with an armful of fist-sized cans with red and white lettering and a tray of sandwiches.

Theo took a sandwich, but the cold metal cans were something they hadn't come across yet. He took one gingerly, and watched carefully to see what Emily did with it, aware that Daphne and Blaise were doing the same thing next to him. Emily paused briefly, aware of their focused attention, and sharply bent up the tab of the can. A hole opened in the metal, and the can made a hissing noise that Theo couldn't account for. Emily wiggled the tab to get it into place, and took a drink.

Theo exchanged a glance with Daphne. Blaise was acting entirely confident, but Theo caught his fingers twitching slightly. Theo tugged on the tab. The metal split and the can hissed, which was more than Theo had really expected, but it was cockeyed and not fully open. Embarrassed, he fiddled with it for a bit and was relieved when it finally gave way.

The can was still hissing slightly. Theo lifted it and took a tentative sip.

 _Merlin!_ The hiss rose to a roar as Theo sipped, and then the drink entered his mouth in a wave of prickly motion. What did muggles drink??? Theo kept his mouth shut and his face frozen, trying not to give away his reaction. The wiggling sensation grew and filled his mouth and then abruptly died down, leaving a sweet drink. He swallowed reflexively and took a bite of sandwich to give himself a chance to recover.

Ace was looking at the footie goal, obviously daydreaming, but the others were staring at him, Emily with mild concern, Blaise and Daphne in consternation. "Is everything okay?" Emily asked.

Theo swallowed. "It's fine, thanks. These sandwiches are good."

Emily nodded and turned back to her sandwich. Theo took a careful second sip from his can. It wasn't so bad this time, possibly because he knew what to expect. This muggle drink was sweeter than pumpkin juice, and perhaps even sweeter than butterbeer, and it had a spicy flavor he didn't recognize.

Emboldened by Theo's second sip, Daphne tried hers. Her eyes widened in surprise, but she followed Theo's example and waited for a moment before swallowing. It really wasn't any worse than a chocolate frog, Theo reflected. They just hadn't been expecting it.

Blaise took a swallow, masking his reaction perfectly. Bastard.

\---

"I wish we had a solution for the phone number issue. I can't keep saying it 'isn't hooked up yet' forever," commented Theo as they set out to walk back to his house.

"At least we're invited back for tomorrow afternoon," Daphne said.

Blaise frowned thoughtfully. "Can we get a phone number?"

"I think it's attached to your house, so probably not," Theo said.

"I think I read about a new kind of phone that people can walk around with," Daphne said, "That kind probably isn't attached to your house. But also I think it runs on ekel- elel- electricity, and muggle electricity doesn't work in- in our houses." She slowed down when she said the unfamiliar words, careful to pronounce them correctly.

They walked in silence for a minute, until Theo spoke up. "How certain are we of that?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Daphne asked.

Theo kicked a small rock off the edge of the pavement. "It just seems to me that we're discovering a number of things that 'everyone knows' that aren't true."

"I'm not sure," Daphne replied. "I don't think I've seen any actual experiments about it. And from what I've read about muggle electricity, they'd actually be quite likely to notice if an area failed to work in a large city like London."

"I'm trying to remember whether Diagon Alley is physically in London or connected via wizardspace," Theo replied after thinking for a while.

"I believe it's physically in London," Blaise put in. "The MacMillan family bought the property from a muggle in 1476, and erected the initial wards to isolate it."

"There you are, then!" Theo replied.

Daphne's eyes were sparkling. "We'll have to try it! But how?"

"Let's go to the muggle store tomorrow morning. Something there might have electricity," Blaise suggested.

Daphne nodded. "We'll get several, and try a few different things. Theo, do you have any cedar magic-insulating boxes?"

"I think so. We can always floo over to Diagon Alley if we need anything. Or send Flippy."

They turned in at Theo's gate and collapsed gratefully onto their seats. Flippy appeared with a tray of butterbeer.

"Another thing," Theo said, sipping his butterbeer, "if the muggle store has cans of that muggle drink, we are getting some and pouring it into a glass. I want to know what's in that stuff!"

Daphne chuckled. "Emily called it coke, if that helps. And I agree. Muggles must be mad, drinking that stuff!"

\---

The muggle store was much the same as last time. The unfamiliar music was too loud, the wares were too still, and they had no idea where to go first. They hadn't been able to figure out how to ask the muggle store employee for what they needed, so they said they were just looking and wandered slowly.

Theo picked up a pair of brown men's shoes that looked like they might fit his father. He'd noticed adult men didn't wear trainers, and they already had an adult shirt with buttons down the front, but not shoes. Flippy could resize them if needed.

Just past the stationary section, they came across a shelf labeled electronic toys. Daphne carefully scrutinized the packages, and after some dithering settled on buying several tamagotchi toys for their experiments. She looked a little anxious about her choice, but Blaise slung a comforting arm around her shoulders. They could always come back and try something else if the tamagotchi toys didn't work.

"Should we look for the drinks now?" Theo whispered, after they'd dropped the toys in the odd basket Blaise had noticed stacked near the entrance.

"Daphne, you should go get more muggle cosmetics first, since we're here," Blaise whispered.

"Why me?"

Blaise rolled his eyes. "Because muggle men are barbarians who don't use cosmetics, but I want to try more of them. Mascara is brilliant."

Daphne sighed. "Fine. But you should come with me."

Theo smiled at them. "You two go get cosmetics. I think I see the cans over there."

The cans came in a variety of colors, each labeled with a different exotic-sounding name. Theo got several different kinds, and then went to the counter to wait for his friends.

\---

"We should probably open a tamagotchi now, to make sure we know how it works," Daphne said as they left the store.

Theo dug into one of the bags he was carrying and handed her a box. Blaise took her elbow to keep her walking straight while Daphne began opening it, passing pieces of packaging to Blaise as they gave way.

Outside Theo's house they stopped, allowing Daphne to finish reading the instructions. "This....these are not very well written," she commented. She turned the device over and tentatively pushed one of the buttons. She flinched a bit when it gave way under her finger, but she pushed again and held it down this time.

After a few seconds, the device chirped. All three of them peered at the tiny screen.

"What is that?" Blaise asked.

"It's meant to be a creature," Theo said, looking at the front of the box. "It says it's an alien. What's an alien?"

"We'll look it up." Blaise reached out and pushed another button, and quickly pulled his hand back when the device chirped again.

"Look, it's moving!" Daphne exclaimed.

"So it is. Muggles like strange things sometimes," Theo commented.

Blaise gently maneuvered around Daphne to push the gate open. "Well, we've established that it works. Let's take it inside."

Taking the device inside made it chirp and shut down and get hot, and they weren't able to get it to work again. But the next one they tried turned on, so they concluded that the device hadn't liked passing through the wards but could safely operate once inside them.

An hour later, they had four dead tamagotchis, but they'd established what did and didn't work. Active magic would damage the device if it was turned on, but if they placed it in a protective case such as a cedar box or a silk bag with runes of protection on it, it would remain unharmed.

"Great," Theo said, "so now we just need to figure out how to get one of those phones."

"And look up what an alien is," Blaise reminded him.

"Right, that too. In the meantime, let's get a look at those muggle drinks," said Theo, pulling out the cans and lining them up on the table.

He called Flippy and asked for a tray of goblets, and they each selected a can.

Blaise and Daphne seemed to expect Theo to go first, so he tugged on the tab. It worked a little better this time.

The drink made a shushing sound as it poured into the goblet. It was dark at first, but then immediately turned light as a layer of foam rushed to the surface.

"It's foam?" Theo asked, picking the goblet up to peer at it more closely, then yelped and dropped it when the foam rose up and overflowed the goblet.

The goblet hit the table and spilled everywhere. The drink was covered by large bubbles for a moment, but then they disappeared.

Hesitantly, Theo reached out and dipped his finger in the spilled liquid, then tasted it. "It tastes the same."

"But where does the foam come from?" Daphne asked.

"Don't know. We could try with a crystal vial, so we can see more?" Theo suggested.

They tried more of the cans in a variety of containers. They couldn't figure out where the foam came from, but they did get better at opening the cans and pouring the drinks without dropping them. They tried a few different flavors, but the subtle variations in flavor were overwhelmed by the foreignness of the sweetness and the foam.

"Merlin, I'm exhausted. Let's leave this for Flippy and stop for lunch," Theo finally suggested.

"We'll need to clean ourselves before our visit as well," Blaise pointed out.

Daphne grabbed her notebook and followed them out to the garden.

\---

Ace greeted them eagerly at the gate of his house, and Emily wasn't far behind. Ace herded them all into the back yard and immediately started them on shooting on the goal, with Ace coaching them and Emily defending the goal.

It was rather fun, after the mental strain of the morning, to focus on the simple exertion of kicking the ball. They improved rapidly, though Theo found himself distracted by Emily in the goal. She was quite pretty, after all, and he rather enjoyed her graceful movements as she shifted in anticipation of each attempt.

Eventually Emily declared she was tired, and Theo moved to the patio with her. Daphne and Blaise continued to trade passes with Ace. Daphne seemed to be genuinely enjoying the game.

"So where are you from? I mean, before you moved here?" Emily asked.

Theo choked on his muggle drink. He really should have expected this question and found an answer for it, but he hadn't. "I....I'm not really supposed to talk about it?" he tried.

Emily looked puzzled, but that was better than offended or horrified. "Why not?"

"It's..." Well, he might as well stick with it. "...There's actually sort of rules about it," he finished.

Emily's eyes got wide. "Is your dad a spy or something?"

"Not...not really?"

Theo was trying not to squirm, but Emily must have picked up on his discomfort. "Well, if you can't talk about it, I guess I shouldn't ask," she said, smiling at him. "How do you and Daphne and Blaise know each other?"

Theo relaxed a bit. This was safer territory, but still risky. "We know each other from school. We go to a boarding school up in Scotland."

"Oh really? Ace is going to a boarding school in the fall, and we're all a little nervous about it. Was it hard?"

"Not really. Well, not in the way you're thinking. My mother died when I was little, and my father....." Theo trailed off, not sure how to describe the formal decorum expected of pureblood households.

"You don't get along?" Emily asked.

Theo shrugged. "It's more that we don't talk much. So I missed him, but I also missed my room and my things. I'd always had my own room, and my tutor would fit his lessons to my schedule, so sharing a room and going to classes was really a much larger change."

"That makes sense. What about Blaise and Daphne?"

"Blaise is in much the same situation as I am. His father is long gone, and his mother is....very busy in society. I think Daphne missed her family a lot, though. Her younger sister, Astoria, is a couple of years below us, and I think that helps."

"I'm sure it does. Ace will be alone - but he's a bright kid, and my parents say we can always transfer him if it turns out to be too hard."

"How about you? Where do you go to school?" Theo asked.

Emily smiled. "Oh, I go to the local comprehensive. It's not bad. Mum likes that I can walk to school if she has to go in early for work."

Theo wished he could ask her more about school, but couldn't think of any questions that wouldn't betray his ignorance. Thankfully, Blaise declared he was tired of footie at that point and the conversation shifted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do teens talk about? What on earth do they *do*? These sequences were honestly some of the hardest to write. It doesn't help that I'm not exactly the most socially adept person to begin with.
> 
> Also, I checked: While the E.T. script uses "alien" in the stage directions, it is never spoken during the movie.


	4. Chapter 4

"I finished an interesting muggle book today," Theo said to his father at dinner.

"Oh? What about?"

"It's fiction. I believe it's quite popular fiction, as the library was displaying it on the bestseller shelf. I didn't follow all of it well, as parts of it were satirical and I don't know the culture well enough yet." Theo took a sip of pumpkin juice to give himself space to think.

He continued, "What I found rather interesting was that it presented a conversation throughout the book about the role of kings and the use of authority. It presented the two sides as the romantic, who believe that a king inherits not only authority but also the power to perfect society, and the pragmatic, who believe that inherited authority does not make one leader better than another, that some men are more ambitious or more intelligent than others but that the best ruler is the one who can make the society work well. It concluded that the inherited authority was useful for emergencies, but that relying on it makes puppets of the people, and at the end of the emergency the king should return to a humble position."

Thaddeus mulled this over. "It has certain parallels to the two views of Slytherin House," he commented. "The house of inherited power, in the form of the purebloods, and the house of pragmatic power, in the form of the traditional values of ambition and cunning."

"That's exactly what I found remarkable," replied Theo. "To find such a cogent summary of our own society's ongoing struggle in a work of muggle fiction."

"And you said this was a popular book?"

Theo fiddled with his fork. "I believe so."

"Then it seems likely that the prevalent opinion among muggles is that the pragmatic power is more useful."

"That is certainly reflected in the attitudes of the muggleborn," Theo commented. "Their attitude irritates Malfoy, which increases the conflict."

"And if I'm not mistaken, his father feels even more strongly inclined to the same perspective." Thaddeus thoughtfully ate a bite of his steak, then added, "But I wonder what the muggle response would be to the argument that purebloods - that is, inherited authority - allows for a greater depth of training in leadership, as our sons and daughters have grown up in their position."

"I don't know," Theo said, shrugging, "though I will say that I have doubted that argument before, mostly when I see Malfoy - Draco, that is - being as petty and transparent as ever despite the advantages of his parents' training."

Thaddeus smiled slightly. "He does seem to lack subtlety. He may yet develop it, of course. Though I have wondered why you have made no attempt to challenge his leadership, Theophanes."

Theo fiddled with his fork. It wasn't the first time he'd been asked that question, and he still hadn't found the right words to express his disinterest in the doings of the self-satisfied morons that made up so much of his house. "I suppose it hasn't seemed worth the effort, Father. I value Blaise and Daphne, but Malfoy and those who blindly follow him would be more an irritant than an asset. Perhaps I lack ambition, after all."

"I doubt that very much, Theo," his father replied. "There are more ambitions in the world than can be encompassed by Hogwarts."

\---

The next day it was drizzling. After some discussion, Theo, Blaise, and Daphne decided to visit Emily and Ace anyway.

"I hope you don't mind," Theo said, smiling a little hesitantly.

Emily smiled back. "Someone to talk to other than my baby brother? I'm super glad you guys came. Maybe we could play a board game or something?"

Theo exchanged glances with his friends. They'd never looked up anything about muggle games other than footie. But it was too late to back out now, so they agreed and followed Emily into a comfortable parlor with couches and a low table.

"Any preferences?" Emily asked. "We've got Monopoly, Uno, Mousetrap, Risk, checkers....Dad has a chess set but we don't play that much."

"Mousetrap!" Ace yelled, bouncing on a couch.

"Mousetrap takes ages," Emily objected. She looked at Theo. "I don't know if you've played it. Setting up the mousetrap part is kind of fun, but the game part is pretty dumb."

Ace, meanwhile, had darted forward to pull out the box.

"Well, looks like Ace is going to do it anyway," Theo replied to Emily. "Why don't you pick?"

Emily grabbed what looked like a pack of cards with the word "Uno" on the backs and came back to sit by Theo. She briefly explained the rules and started dealing. Ace sighed deeply but came back to join them.

They didn't talk much at first, settling into the rhythm of the game, until Daphne suddenly stopped rearranging her cards and said, "ow!"

"Are you all right?" Emily asked.

"I hurt my finger," Daphne said, peering at the small cut.

Blaise leaned forward to look at it, reached towards his pocket, and then stopped himself.

"Papercut? Ace, go get a bandaid," Emily ordered.

Theo smirked. "Well, Daphne? Is your father going to hear about this?"

Daphne laughed, and leaned back in the couch, arm in an imaginary sling and nose in the air. "My arm is disfigured! I cannot possibly use it for at least a month. My father will hear about this and you will all be sorry!"

Theo and Blaise burst out laughing at her imitation of Malfoy.

Seeing Emily's confusion, Theo explained. "She's imitating someone in our year. He did something stupid in class and was injured, but it wasn't that big of a deal - the nurse patched him up and he was back to normal by dinnertime. But he's a prat, so he called his father and spent the next month with his arm in a sling, claiming he couldn't do any of his schoolwork."

"And the teachers just let him?" Emily asked.

Theo shrugged. "Snape, our Head of House, went along with it, so the other teachers fell in line. He spoils Malfoy a lot, mostly due to politics."

"Though in this case I think Snape also saw it as an opportunity to victimize Potter," Blaise put in.

"True," Theo said.

"Potter?" Emily asked.

"Potter is another classmate. Snape doesn't like him," said Theo.

Blaise rearranged the cards in his hand. "My mother says that Potter's parents and Snape were all at...at school together. Snape was infatuated with Potter's mother for years."

"I hadn't known that," Daphne said.

"Wasn't she a...weren't they in different houses?" Theo asked.

"True, but you know my mother. She said Snape and Lily Evans were friends for a long time, and he was infatuated with her, but...well, she didn't like his friends and he didn't like hers, and then he....said something insulting to her in front of half the school, and they weren't friends anymore."

"And now he takes it out on Potter," Theo finished.

Blaise shrugged.

"That's....that's bonkers! He shouldn't do that!" Emily exclaimed.

Theo shifted in his seat. "No, probably not. But he does."

"But he's a teacher!" Emily cried hotly.

Theo sighed. "Yeah, he shouldn't do it. But there's nothing we can really do to stop him."

Emily sighed too, but she leaned a little sideways so her shoulder was pressed against Theo's, so Theo counted that as a win.

"What about you, Emily?" Daphne asked. "Any awful teachers at your school?"

"Well, not like that. There was that time that Charlie Finnegan sprained his ankle playing footie and insisted he couldn't write papers until it was healed," Emily said.

"Shouldn't think his penmanship was very good, if he wrote with his foot," Theo joked.

Emily giggled. "Exactly. He was really carrying on, too, moaning and whining the whole time."

"We should introduce him to Malfoy, they can discuss strategies," Blaise murmured, and Theo snorted.

"The teachers are all pretty normal, I guess. Well, there is Mr. Hunt. He twists the chalk against his lips while he's thinking, and then it's impossible to pay attention to his lecture because his lips have white circles on them."

All of them chuckled at that.

Daphne eventually won the game of Uno. Blaise endured her ribbing good-naturedly, and Theo and Emily laughed at his expression from where they were helping Ace set up the Mousetrap contraption.

Emily stretched and leaned back. The drizzle had turned into a steady downpour outside, but they all felt relaxed and cozy inside.

"Want to watch a movie?" Emily offered, "I could pop some popcorn."

Theo blinked. He hadn't been sure whether muggles could watch movies in their homes, since it had seemed to require quite a bit of space, but Emily's offer simplified the matter. "Sure. Do you happen to have E.T.?" he asked.

Emily frowned, thinking. "I think so. Ace, go check."

Ace rolled his eyes but scampered off.

"I appreciate it. We saw most of E.T. just before the end of term, but never had a chance to watch the end," Theo explained.

Emily laughed. "Yeah, that would suck. I think we have it."

Just then they heard a "Yup, it's here!" floating up from the basement.

"Great!" Emily said, getting to her feet. "Theo, come help me with the popcorn."

Theo followed her to the kitchen, and Ace beckoned Blaise and Daphne down the basement stairs.

The popcorn turned out to be lumpy folded parchment packets that Emily placed in a funny cabinet which beeped and hummed, and Theo tried not to be distracted by the way the packets swelled and made soft popping sounds. Emily loaded him down with cans of coke and strange lightweight drinking vessels, made of some pinkish clear material with tiny bubbles in them, and then she opened the parchment sacks, which she had removed from the cabinet, and poured the contents into two large bowls. The smell of the popcorn was unfamiliar but very appealing.

When they got downstairs, Theo found that Ace, Daphne, and Blaise were seated on one of two couches facing a glowing box. Theo distributed cans and drinking vessels, and Emily dropped one bowl of popcorn in Daphne's lap and sat down with the other.

Theo sat down next to her, puzzled. Was popcorn restricted to girls? There was no serving spoon, and no plates. Emily, seeing him looking at it, tilted the bowl towards him. What was she expecting?

Theo heard a startled noise from Daphne, and looked over to see Ace scoop up some popcorn out of Daphne's bowl with his hand and dump it into his lap. He showed neither defiance nor apology for this appalling breach of manners.

Theo took a deep breath. Muggles did things differently. He reached out and took a handful of popcorn. It was slightly greasy against his fingers, and the irregular shapes made it hard to hold firmly. But it tasted good, and Emily seemed content.

Theo had assumed that the movie would be less interesting the second time, but he found he was just as fascinated as before. He understood more of what was happening, though he made a few mental notes of things to look up later, and he found himself just as strongly drawn into the story.

They watched the movie straight through. Theo gasped when E.T. made the bikes fly, and at the end he leaned back against the couch, enjoying the rush of emotion at the conclusion of the story.

The movie box kept playing music, but the only thing it showed was a list of names. Emily stirred and began collecting bowls and cans, and Ace stretched. Theo stood up and took the empty cans from Emily, then followed her back up the stairs.

Emily indicated which bucket Theo should put the cans in, and placed the bowls in the sink. Theo took a moment to look around at the muggle kitchen. The room hummed softly. A shelf was lined with a series of tall, brightly-colored boxes, and a corner of the counter held a stack of books. A rack held bottles of dried herbs, presumably for cooking rather than for potions.

Just then the front door rattled and opened, and a tall, dark-haired woman came in, wearing a gray dress jacket with buttons and a coordinating short skirt.

"Mum!" Emily called, and ran over to hug her mother.

Mrs. Harris warmly returned the hug, and then turned to Theo.

"This is my friend Theo, Mum," Emily hastily introduced him.

Mrs. Harris held out her hand, so Theo took it. "A pleasure, Mrs. Harris."

"Daphne and Blaise are downstairs with Ace. We just finished a movie," Emily explained.

Mrs. Harris smiled. "I'm glad to finally meet you all!" She glanced up at the clock, then added, "If you're not busy, would you like to stay for dinner? You could call your parents and let them know."

Theo hesitated, and Emily jumped in. "Their phone still isn't hooked up, Mum."

"Still?" she exclaimed. "What on earth is taking them so long? I swear, these things take ages longer than they should."

Theo smiled. "I'm just glad I've made friends who can work around it."

"You could still stay for dinner. It wouldn't take that long to walk home and tell your dad and come back," Emily suggested.

Mrs. Harris brightened. "That's a good idea! In fact, why don't you invite him to join us? We'll just order pizza, so there's no difficulty, and my husband will be home in a bit."

Theo hoped his emotions didn't show on his face. "Well, I'll ask, but I don't know if he'll be up for it tonight."

"Of course," Mrs. Harris said, and turned to greet Ace and Blaise and Daphne, who were coming up the stairs.

"Would you like company on the walk?" Emily asked Theo.

"No," said Theo, then added, "Well, yes, I would, but you'd better not. My father isn't always comfortable with strangers."

"That's all right then," Emily replied, smiling. "I'll see you in a bit."

Theo stepped out into the still-drizzly evening, and blew out a breath. What in Merlin's name would his father think of this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GNU Terry Pratchett :)


	5. Chapter 5

"I have been invited to dine with muggles," Thaddeus Nott repeated.

"Yes, Father."

Thaddeus sat in silence for a minute. "What are your thoughts, Theo?"

Theo spread his hands. "The muggles are pleasant enough company. The risk of exposure is minimal. This may not be a strategically important experience, but it is likely to be an interesting one."

"True." Thaddeus thought for a little longer, then got to his feet. "I presume you already have muggle clothes for me?"

\---

As they walked down the street, Theo hoped they hadn't taken too long. Getting the clothes to fit his father properly had taken time, and more time had been spent in removing cosmetics and considering the arrangement of his father's long gray hair.

Thankfully, Emily seemed pleased and unconcerned when they arrived. She led them into the family room, where Blaise and Daphne, each holding a muggle drink, were examining a toy that Ace was showing them, and Mrs. Harris was talking with a sandy-haired man.

Theo and his father entered the room, and Blaise choked on his drink. Theo smirked.

The adults had risen at their entrance. "Welcome to our home!" said Mrs. Harris, coming forward to shake hands. "I'm Julie, and this is Ian. I'm so glad you came."

"Thank you," Thaddeus replied, shaking hands. "My name is Thaddeus, and I believe you know my son Theo."

"Nice to meet you," said Ian. "My daughter Emily let you in, of course, and that's Arthur - Ace for short - over there with Theo's friends. Would you like a beer, Thaddeus?"

Thaddeus hesitated, then nodded and thanked him, and Ian left briefly and returned with a brown bottle.

Thaddeus put it to his lips and drank. Theo saw the corners of his mouth pinch slightly, but he swallowed calmly and smiled at their hosts.

Julie smiled back and waved him to a seat. "Now, Emily told us your work was classified, so I won't ask what you do. Do you have any hobbies?"

"I confess I'm a man of quiet habits, and my evenings are mostly spent with a book. However, Theo and I will be attending a performance of Othello next week, and I am looking forward to that. It would be good to get out of the house, I think."

"Do you fish at all?" Ian asked.

Thaddeus blinked. "Not since I was a boy, no."

"Oh, we should get you out to the club sometime! Come on out back, I'll show you how to cast!" And with that, Ian led Thaddeus to the back yard, collecting a fly rod on the way.

Emily giggled. Theo turned and looked at her quizzically.

"Dad's always trying to get people to fish with him," she explained.

"Then I hope Father enjoys it," Theo said. "What club was your father talking about?"

"Oh, the fishing around here is all private, so you have to belong to the club to go. Dad likes to go up north a few times a year to fish other places. He'll probably have invited your dad to come with him by the end of the night."

\---

"What does muggle beer taste like?" Theo asked his father after Blaise and Daphne had left. They hadn't talked much on the way home: too many thoughts and risks and people to balance.

"It's vile," Thaddeus replied, making his way to his favorite armchair, "Bitter and biting, like a medicinal potion. A _bad_ medicinal potion."

Theo grinned at his father. "Did you drink the whole thing anyway?"

"Of course not; I waited until Ian was distracted and transfigured it to water."

That made sense. Thaddeus had spent a week teaching Theo to transfigure liquids to water the summer before, drilling him until he could do it wandlessly and silently. It was a useful skill if you were unsure of the trustworthiness of whoever handed you the drink.

"At least the pizza was good," Theo offered.

Thaddeus frowned. "Eating with one's hands was....distasteful. But yes, the food was good. And the people were surprisingly pleasant. Their manners are not like ours, of course, but one adjusts. I may even join Ian for fishing at a future date."

Theo's eyebrows rose. "Really?"

"It was, as you said, an interesting experience." Thaddeus accepted a firewhiskey from Flippy and sipped appreciatively. "By the by, have you any idea what Julie meant when she said she knew my work is classified?"

Theo shook his head. "Is there an encyclopedia upstairs?"

The rescued muggle library didn't have an encyclopedia, but it did have a dictionary. They consulted it and came away more puzzled than ever.

"She thinks I work for the muggle government?" Thaddeus asked.

Theo furrowed his brow, thinking back through his conversations with Emily. "I believe I know what happened. Emily asked where we were from, and I had failed to plan for the question and ended up saying I wasn't allowed to talk about it. She asked if you were a spy at the time, as I recall."

Thaddeus chuckled a little. "Well, that was not very wise of you, but it seems it turned out well."

\---

"Here, Father," Theo said, putting a muggle book on Thaddeus' desk.

Thaddeus picked it up. " _No Fear Shakespeare_?"

"I asked the librarian what _Othello_ was about, and she suggested it to me. Apparently Shakespeare wrote some four hundred years ago, and the language and culture can be difficult for modern muggles to understand."

Thaddeus hummed, frowning over the book. "Have you read it?"

"Some of it. I had Flippy make a duplicate so we could both read. The language is beautiful, but I think it will help to have read this before seeing it performed."

\---

Theo opened his father's study door to find Thaddeus staring into the fire, the annotated Othello book in his lap. His eyes looked unusually distant.

"Father?" he asked.

Thaddeus' gaze shifted to his son. "Come in, Theophanes."

Theo entered. His father did not speak or move. Finally, Theo asked, "Is all well, Father?"

Thaddeus flexed his shoulders, bringing himself back to the present. He lifted the book slightly. "This man is a fool."

"Othello, you mean?"

"Yes." Thaddeus relapsed into silence for a minute, then stirred himself again. "Do you remember your mother?"

"A little bit, sir. And I know her from her portrait."

"She was younger than I - much younger. It was largely a practical arrangement, of course, but I....I was very fond of her. If this Iago had come to me with his story, I think I might have doubted my wife also."

Theo wasn't sure what to say to that.

"Of course, such things are more readily resolved among our kind," Thaddeus went on, "but the passions....the passions are the same, Theo."

"Yes, Father."

Thaddeus smiled sadly down at the book. "In a way, this gives me hope. I was never sure that your mother could be fond of me. But perhaps she was."

\---

"That was....remarkable."

Theo and his father had just returned from the performance of _Othello_. They hadn't known what to expect, and they had both been slightly nervous as they left Thaddeus' scouted apparition point to join the crowd.

But they had been swept away by the play once it began. The warm air, the darkening sky, and the muggle scents had combined to add an exotic note to the enthralling performance. The actor playing Iago, the villain, had been particularly compelling, and Theo had felt shivers go down his spine when Iago spoke.

"It really was," Theo said, agreeing with his father. "Studying the text was interesting, but seeing it brought to life like that - it was amazing."

"We must attend more of them," Thaddeus decided, spreading out the sheets of paper he held in one hand. "Someone handed me these - flyers, did you say they were called? An odd name, as they do not appear to be animated."

Theo came over to examine them. "Are they all plays?" he asked, getting rather excited. So many muggle performances!

"I do not think so," Thaddeus replied, slowly scanning the titles. "This one is a concert, and this is a lecture. They might be interesting, even so."

Theo picked one up. "This one is Shakespeare again." His eyes fell to the bottom of the page. "£5, call for tickets," he murmured to himself. "We have got to sort out the telephone issue."

\---

"Can we go for ice cream?" Ace begged as soon as Theo and his friends walked through the front gate.

"Ice cream?" he asked, looking at Emily.

Emily shrugged. "There's an ice cream place at Templar's Square. Have you been there yet?"

"No, I haven't. Is it far?"

"It's about a twenty minute walk. Faster on a bike, if you have bikes."

Bikes. Something else to look up. At least it didn't sound like it would be suspicious to not have them. "We don't. But twenty minutes isn't too bad, and it's a nice day."

Ace grinned. "Ice cream!" he shouted, running out to the pavement.

The others chuckled at his enthusiasm. Theo followed Emily to the gate. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Blaise offer Daphne his arm, but Theo didn't think muggles did that.

"What else is at Templar's Square?" Theo asked.

"The usual things. Lloyd's Bank is there - my father banks there - and there's a few clothing shops and things." Emily shook her hair back from her face, then pulled a hair tie off her wrist and began to pull her hair back. The sun glinted off the golden strands.

Theo blinked. "Sounds like a good place to know about. We've been to the library and the Primark, but we haven't explored that much yet."

"Primark is convenient, and some of their clothes are cute. But I like New Look too, and of course there's ice cream."

"Are there any other stores I should know about?" Theo asked.

"I think the only other store I go to often is Broad Canvas, when I can get Mum to take me. They sell art supplies. Or sometimes I take the bus, if I want something specific."

"Oh, do you draw?" Theo asked.

Emily looked a little embarrassed, but nodded. "I like to paint too. Someone at school used to tease me about it, so I don't usually show people."

"That's a silly thing to tease someone about."

Emily smiled at him. "Yeah."

Muggle ice cream, Theo decided, wasn't as good as the Wizarding kind. It tasted good, but the flavor was a little flat, and it dripped much more. On the other hand, the crunchy biscuit cones to hold the ice cream in while you ate it were novel.

They wandered for a while, watching the crowds and window-shopping. Eventually they turned for home.

"You know, I learned to draw a little when I was younger," Theo said thoughtfully. "It's not something I usually do for fun, but if you wanted to go out and draw some time, maybe I could come with you. You're less likely to be teased if you're with someone."

"I'd like that," Emily said, smiling at him. Theo smiled back. It was good that she was happy.

Emily started walking a little closer to him, and he was surprised when her hand brushed his. It was a good surprise, though. In that instant, her hand had felt warm and soft and awfully appealing.

Her hand brushed against his a second time, and Theo realized she was doing it on purpose. He turned to look at her, and saw that she was biting her lip nervously. Without thinking, he reached out and took her hand. She looked at him, wide-eyed, and he smiled and stroked his thumb along the line of her finger.

She smiled back, and it was like the sun coming out on a cloudy day.

\---

"Father, did you ever experience attraction to someone of... less than appropriate breeding?" Theo asked at dinner that night.

Thaddeus looked up at Theo and smirked. "I was wondering when you would notice."

Theo scowled, which just made his father smile at him more.

"I was never involved with a muggle, naturally," Thaddeus said after a moment, "and I'm afraid I have had relatively few romances in my life. I was rather enamored of a Hufflepuff in fifth year, as I recall. Her name was Felicia Thorpe, and she was a halfblood. I believe she later married into the Abbott family."

"And was your house aware of your interest?" Theo asked.

"They were, but that was before the Blood Wars began in earnest. We were not such fanatics then. At the time, Riddle spoke slightingly of halfbloods in general, but he was careful to speak well of anyone who had caught our interest, graciously allowing that they had risen above their breeding."

"Riddle?" Theo asked, puzzled.

Thaddeus' eyebrows rose. "Have I never mentioned that? Riddle was the Dark Lord's name. Thomas Marvolo Riddle. He hated being called Tom, even then."

Theo frowned, searching his memory. "I don't remember a Riddle family. I think there's a Jasper Riddle who invented the Age Line - perhaps a relation?"

Thaddeus chuckled. "I doubt it. No, Riddle is a muggle name, and the Dark Lord is a halfblood. We were sworn not to speak of it, naturally, and I am quite possibly the last of the Dark Lord's servants who remembers."

Theo's eyes widened. "I should think so, sir." He sat silently, considering this information. In a house that regarded information as power, his father's revelation was a valuable gift.

"Isn't there a Special Services to the School award for Riddle?" he asked eventually.

"Indeed. It was awarded for Riddle's efforts when the Chamber of Secrets was opened fifty years ago. Riddle exposed Hagrid and the acromantula he was keeping, after a Ravenclaw named Warren died. Of course, the chamber was opened again the year before last, and the attacks continued even after Hagrid's arrest, which rather casts doubt on the original award."

"Of course." Theo considered this. "Dumbledore must know all of this," he pointed out eventually.

Thaddeus sipped his wine. "I expect he does. He taught Transfiguration at the time, and Dumbledore is not actually a fool. I have never been certain why he does not publish the Dark Lord's history. Possibly he fears that others would follow in his footsteps."

"But surely it would have weakened the Dark Lord during the war," Theo pointed out. "The Black family would never follow a halfblood, among others."

"Possibly, but possibly not. I believe he had killed all of his muggle family, and his knowledge of magic and charismatic power might well have been enough to maintain their allegiance. It would, however, have been a useful tool against the Taboo that was one of the Dark Lord's most potent weapons, and I have never understood why he did not use it in that manner."

Theo took a bite of his quail, and chewed thoughtfully. "Thank you for this information, Father. We have strayed from my original question, though: how should I proceed with Emily?"

Thaddeus sighed. "It's an excellent question, is it not? What are your thoughts?"

Theo thought of Emily, and smiled without knowing he did so. Her bright smile, and her warm hand, and her flushed face when she felt strongly about something...but of course these were irrelevant. He cleared his mind, choosing to see the situation as clearly and coolly as his father doubtless did.

Theo balanced his fork and knife carefully across the edge of his plate. "Normally when considering an entanglement of this sort, one considers the possible consequences if it ends, as well as the possible consequences if it continues. In this case, the ending of such a relationship has no consequences. We would probably be acquaintances, and she would be at some risk should the Dark Lord and his followers increase in strength, but no more than she is at present. If it went well, it becomes more complicated. If our society continues as it is, it could damage my position in society, and our family's position, very substantially."

Theo paused, looking at his plate. The image of bringing Emily into his home, into his life, flashed through his mind.

After a moment his father prompted him, "And if our society evolves, as societies are wont to do?"

Theo took a deep breath. "If the Dark Lord returns, or if his followers come openly to power, our position will be precarious in any case. The only alternative to ending the relationship - and ending it entirely; we could not be friends in that case - would be for them to join us in Europe.

"On the other hand, Dumbledore holds power, and he seems determined to push Potter to the front of society. Potter's closest friends are Weasley, from a family of notorious muggle-lovers, and Granger, who seems to be determined to push her muggle origins in our faces. It is not inconceivable that a muggle bride would one day be an advantage."

"Do you think that is likely?" Thaddeus prodded.

Theo turned over a hand. "Not any time soon, I admit. But Fudge is hardly likely to maintain power indefinitely. It is, to some extent, a contest between Malfoy and Dumbledore as to who can shape his chosen successor into a competent politician sooner."

Thaddeus narrowed his eyes. "An interesting analysis of the situation, and one we should return to at a later date. So much for the distant future; what is your assessment of the immediate future? The rest of the summer?"

More images flashed through Theo's mind: Emily's eyes sparkling with anger at his rejection, the emptiness of days without her. He adjusted his expression, and shrugged. "I confess I would prefer to continue the relationship. I quite like Emily, and it would be difficult to draw back at this stage without offending her and her family."

"And in doing so, we would lose our entrée to the muggle world," Thaddeus said, completing Theo's thought. "And school day romances rarely last in any case."

Theo nodded. "Exactly. I think perhaps the most advantageous plan would be to continue for the summer, and then allow the connection to drop during the school year."

Thaddeus smiled. "A reasonable plan, Theo. And we shall see how circumstances develop. One never knows what changes may come."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If Ian's strategy of forcibly teaching people to fly-fish seems like a strange way of making friends, all I can say is that it has worked surprisingly well (meaning it's worked at least once) for my father.


	6. Chapter 6

Thaddeus leaned back comfortably in his armchair, holding his brandy glass by the bowl to gently warm it. "At dinner the other evening, you said that you see the question of the future as a question of whether Harry Potter or Draco Malfoy will mature enough to step into leadership first." 

Theo raised his eyebrows. "Do you disagree with my assessment?" 

"Not particularly. There are a few other possibilities, of course - Scrimgeour is agitating to turn his current position into something more, and I believe Helias Smith is concocting some plan or other, if I know the signs - but you are right that most of the current factions would fall in line behind one or the other of those two." Thaddeus took a long sip of his brandy. "The question, then, is who will be first." 

Theo hummed thoughtfully. "Draco has the advantage of his parents' instruction. Both his parents are skilled political players, and of course they have significant wealth and influence. His parents are still in the prime of life, which may allow for greater continuity, but may also create friction if Draco someday wishes to take the lead before his father is ready to step down. On the other hand, Draco has shown little or no subtlety. He is a braggart, and his strategy is very poor. He continually attempts to prove his superiority in his weakest arenas. He's actually quite skilled with magical knowledge, especially charms and enchanting, but he does not seem to recognize the value of that resource. 

"Potter.…naturally I know less about Potter. I do not know who has been raising him, but I doubt they have any particular political skill. He doesn't even dress presentably - the clothes under his robes are consistently oversized and worn. He must have significant wealth, and of course the Potter family is well-connected, but he seems to make no attempt to capitalize on those advantages. He's Dumbledore's golden boy, but of course Dumbledore is aging. Potter is also extremely volatile, and rises to bait easily. On the other hand, he has chosen his friends much more wisely than Malfoy. 

"Come to think of it, the difference in their friends may be a particularly notable factor. Draco has surrounded himself with sycophants: Crabbe and Goyle follow him because they do as they are told, and I believe Pansy flirts with him on her mother's advice but I doubt she would be willing to stick her neck out for him. Draco lacks the talent to make himself appealing to those who have their own agendas, and his overtures towards me and Blaise have ranged from the formulaic to the offensive. 

"Potter's friends may not be politically astute, but at least they are not useless. Weasley contributes little, but I hear he plays a solid game of chess, so he may be capable of development. Granger is quite intelligent, and her passion and energy might be very useful, if properly directed. And the Weasleys as a whole are not a bad choice - they are well-liked and well-respected in a number of fields. The twins' attempt to defuse the Heir of Slytherin situation was quite brilliant." Theo stopped, uncertain what to say next. 

"One rather wonders what Dumbledore is playing at," Thaddeus murmured. 

Theo snorted. "Indeed." 

They sat in silence, considering. The fire crackled gently, and a log broke and fell. 

"The situation is remarkably balanced," Thaddeus said. "I see nothing definite to predispose the result in one direction or another. It will be interesting to see the outcome."

"We could probably shift the circumstances ourselves, if we chose," Theo observed. His comment the other night about the possible advantage of a Muggle bride had recurred to him, in a burst of hastily-quenched hope. 

Thaddeus shifted. "True, but I do not know that that would be wise. I think neither of us wishes to back the Malfoys, and I have no desire to render our position more precarious than ever by supporting the Boy Who Lived while my Mark grows darker. If it fades to nothing again....well, we shall see."

\---

"I visited Gringotts today," Thaddeus announced as they sat down for dinner. 

Theo looked up sharply. It was not uncommon for his father to visit the bank, but during the summer Theo normally accompanied his father on those visits, to familiarize himself with their accounts and investments. "Oh?" 

"I wished to enquire what accommodations they have for those who wish to establish a financial foothold in the muggle world." 

Theo blinked. His father seemed determined to act as if this was entirely normal, but of course it was not. Not at all. "May I ask why, sir?" he eventually asked. 

Thaddeus smiled slightly. "Curiosity, for one. And there may be investments worth exploring. And...." he paused, rearranged his fork and knife, and continued, "...it may be useful. When the Dark Lord fell, many of his followers searched long and hard for the Boy Who Lived. They found not a trace of him until Dumbledore had him brought to Hogwarts. It has long been rumored that he was raised among muggles, and that is why we could not find him. If it becomes necessary for us to leave, we would be safer in a property bought through muggle means."

Theo nodded slowly. "Certainly safer from the Dark Lord. I assume we would put up wards and security spells ourselves?" 

"Or contract the goblins to do it for us, yes. For a fee such things can be done blindly." 

"Yes. And so, what did you learn, Father?" 

Thaddeus dabbed at his lips with his napkin. "Unfortunately, their services are not as extensive as I might have hoped. They can transfer money to and from muggle banks, as well as exchanging currency, but that is the limit of what they are prepared to do." 

"That's disappointing." 

"Indeed. But they were able to direct me to a muggle bank, and suggest a discreet alley nearby for apparition. I suppose it cannot be too difficult to bring in some muggle money and open an account and ask some questions. I may need to use a confundus or two, of course, but that is no great matter."

\---

"Daphne, is that the August issue? I need it!" Blaise said, reaching for the muggle magazine in Daphne's hand.

Daphne giggled and pulled away, carefully marking the page with her quill. "No! I haven't found out which type of flirt I am yet!"

"I'll tell you what type of flirt you are," Blaise muttered, folding his arms to watch her finish the quiz.

"What do you want it for?" Theo asked, looking up from his book.

Blaise gestured to the table, where a pile of muggle and magical cosmetics lay scattered. "We picked up a new cosmetic called 'eyeliner.' I want to try it, and that issue has instructions."

"Here, I finished," Daphne said, closing the magazine and handing it to Blaise.

Blaise bowed elaborately. "Much obliged, I'm sure," he said, then carried the magazine over to the table.

Theo raised an eyebrow at Daphne. "And what kind of flirt are you?" he asked.

Daphne looked puzzled. "I flirt like Kelly Taylor. They have a photo, but they don't say who she is." Then she grinned. "But it says I am cool, confident, and charming."

Blaise chuckled, and leaned towards the mirror he'd conjured to apply something to his eye. He leaned back to examine his work, fiddled with the pencil a little more, and nodded.

"You should try this, Theo," he said. "Your eyes are one of your best features anyway."

Theo raised his brows, but he put down his book and came to sit next to Blaise anyway. Blaise handed him the pencil and passed over the open magazine. Theo studied the illustrations, then leaned forward so he could see the mirror and attempt to replicate the effect.

"What do you think?" Theo asked when he was finished.

Blaise studied him, then turned to examine his own reflection. "It doesn't look quite like the magazine, but I think I like the effect. What do you think, Daphne?"

Daphne looked up from the muggle chemistry book she was reading. "What do I think about what?"

Blaise gestured to his face, and Daphne considered him. "It's too dark," she decided. "Can you make it lighter?"

Blaise hummed and turned back to his mirror. Theo leaned back against the table. "What are you reading about, Daphne?" he asked.

"The components of air, actually," Daphne replied.

Theo frowned. "Air has components?"

Daphne nodded. "The muggles have found ways to separate them. There are potions that use air or breath, you know, but it's a very unpredictable ingredient. I suspect that understanding the composition of air would be a major breakthrough."

Blaise turned around. "There. What do you think of that?"

Daphne studied his face again. Blaise had wiped off much of the eyeliner, and the rest was blurred and smudged. "It's still messy," she said. "But yes. It's....it's rather attractive."

Blaise grinned. "I am definitely keeping this stuff."

\---

"Was your visit to the muggle bank successful, Father?" Theo asked. 

"It was remarkably successful," Thaddeus replied, looking pleased. "I think perhaps I need not have used magic at all, though I used a light confundus here and there as a precaution. The muggles behind the desk were quick to fetch a manager for me, and the manager very graciously explained how muggle banking works. Did you know that muggle banks pay their account holders for entrusting their money to them?"

"They do? Merlin!" Theo considered this. "How much do they pay?" 

"Two parts per hundred, added each year. Not much, but it amounts to a tidy sum over time." 

"Merlin," Theo exclaimed again. "How do they manage that? I mean, where does the money come from, if not from their customers?" 

"I asked that as well. Apparently muggle banks are in the habit of giving out loans to muggles who cannot afford to buy a house, and they charge more for the loans." 

"There must be a lot of muggles who cannot buy a house," Theo said. 

Thaddeus shrugged. "There were other loans as well, but I confess I was not interested in the vagaries of muggles. The bank manager laid out a variety of investment possibilities; I will give you my notes and the various booklets he gave me to look over. I have successfully set up a bank account, and he gave me a 'bank card' which can be used at muggle shops."

"That sounds useful," Theo commented. 

"I believe it will be. We will need to consider the investment opportunities carefully. The payments from the muggle bank may well be worth more than the transfer fees charged by the goblins." 

"They might be. And if we intend to purchase a house using muggle means, the money will need to be in the muggle bank anyway, to avoid suspicion." 

"True. The bank manager gave me the card of a muggle estate agent, who he says will be happy to assist us with locating an appropriate house in this country or elsewhere in Europe."

Theo looked up, puzzled. "As in the bank card?" 

"Ah, no. This 'card' appears to be a piece of stiff board, with the agent's name and address on it, and a number that can be called using a muggle device called a telephone."

"I see." Theo sighed. "Muggles seem to place a great deal of importance on their telephones." 

Thaddeus shrugged. "We do not need to adapt to their ways if it is not convenient for us. I am sure I can arrange things without too much trouble." 

Theo hesitated, but nodded. "I'm sure you can, Father. But be careful." 

\---

"I'm going to be away, the next week or two," Theo told Emily. "My father and I are going on holiday." 

They had taken the bus (loud and smelly, but still interesting for its novelty) into town, and gone to Broad Canvas. Emily had bought a new soft drawing pencil, as her old one was mostly gone. Theo, wary of betraying his ignorance, had claimed that the drawing supplies he'd owned as a child were long gone and he would have to buy new. The wide selection bewildered him, and he selected a tin of colored pencils, somewhat at random, and a drawing pad to go with them. 

Sketching supplies in hand, they had walked to the Pitt Rivers Museum, and spent a few hours talking quietly and sketching. The colored pencils turned out to be softer than Theo expected. Drawing with them was reasonably pleasant, but Theo enjoyed the way Emily relaxed as she drew more. 

"Where are you going?" Emily asked. 

Theo shifted. Their planned itinerary included several countries and a dozen cities, as they looked for a neighborhood they could consider moving into, but he knew that muggle travel was slower and more troublesome than the wizarding methods. "Spain for a bit, and then Morocco. We'll be touring around quite a bit." 

Emily looked anxiously at him. "That sounds fun. You'll send me a postcard or something, right?" 

"Of course," Theo replied, making a mental note to find out what a postcard was. 

Emily smiled softly, then ducked her head and looked back at her drawing pad. "When are you leaving?" 

"Wednesday. We'll be back a few days before I have to leave for school on the 1st." They would actually be attending the Quidditch World Cup before leaving, but he couldn't explain that. His father had deliberately booked the international portkey for immediately after the game, so that they would both be conveniently elsewhere during whatever demonstration Malfoy was dreaming up. Theo had suggested they skip the game entirely, as he wasn't as passionate about Quidditch as some of his peers, but it would have looked odd if they hadn't gone at all. He was glad, though, as it would be good to watch the game with his friends, and wander the carnival atmosphere of the campgrounds before the game started. 

"Perhaps when I get back, we can do this again," Theo added, and Emily smiled back at him. 

\---

Boarding the Hogwarts Express was a strange experience this year, Theo decided. On the one hand, it was rather a relief to be able to relax in the familiarity of magic and the culture he knew. On the other hand, he had enjoyed his conversations with his father this summer, and he would miss Emily. He had promised to write to her, and to send photos (and his father had promised to pass on his letters, and bring the muggle disposable cameras to be developed, assuming they worked properly in Hogwarts - Daphne said they would, but none of them were certain) but it wouldn't be the same.

"In here!" Daphne called, waving from a compartment. 

Theo pulled his trunk in, greeted Daphne and Blaise, and stowed his trunk. As he sat down, he got a good look at Blaise.

"What are you wearing?" he asked, laughing.

Blaise grinned. "I told you mascara was brilliant. While you were gone, I also discovered that muggles have body shimmer that gives this effect. I've no idea what's in it, but it's brilliant."

Daphne rolled her eyes, though Theo noticed she was also wearing mascara. "Blaise made me go to the muggle store a dozen times. I told them I was stocking up for school, but I'm still not sure what they thought."

"I just wanted to be sure I have enough!" Blaise protested.

Theo grinned at his friends. They settled in, and Theo told them about the riad he and his father had bought in Marrakesh and the curious charmed jewelry they'd bought at the magical souk. Blaise caught them up on the latest society gossip and the details he'd collected about the Triwizard Tournament, which would be happening this year. Daphne showed them her notes about buffered solutions and the potions experiments she wanted to try, now that she had access to a potions lab again. Draco and his sycophants stopped by to boast about his knowledge of the Tournament and his father's role in the chaos after the Quidditch World Cup, but they rolled their eyes and ignored him until he went away. All in all, it was a pleasure to catch up, and the hours passed easily.

After a couple of hours, Theo had to use the bathroom. He was nearly back at his compartment when the train jolted, throwing a passing firstie against him and causing them both to tumble over.

The firstie squeaked, and seemed to be struggling with his robes. Theo sighed, got to his feet, and hauled the firstie up.

"Theo!" the firstie squealed, beaming up at him.

It was Ace.


	7. Chapter 7

"Merlin!" Theo swore, and bundled Ace through the door of his compartment. He was distantly aware of Blaise and Daphne jumping to their feet in surprise, but his focus was wholly on Ace. "What are you doing here?" Theo demanded.

"I - I - are you a wizard?" Ace asked.

"Am I - of course I'm bloody well a wizard. What are you doing here?" Theo demanded again.

Blaise snorted. "Ace is going to Hogwarts, Theo. I would have thought that much was obvious."

Theo stopped, took a deep breath, cleared his mind. "Fine," he snapped. "You're a wizard. You didn't tell us because it isn't allowed, just like we didn't tell you because it isn't allowed."

Ace nodded, eyes wide.

Theo looked at him. "You might furbish yourself up, though. You look like - you look like such a muggleborn! Just look at those robes!"

Ace looked down at himself. "What do you mean?"

"You just-" Theo stepped forward and began adjusting the robes with brisk movements. "You twist this like _this_ before you put it on, and then you tug this into place _here_ , and then this is meant to be tied." He stepped back and surveyed his work. The robes looked better. "Do you think you can remember that?"

Ace looked down, apparently repeating Theo's instructions to himself, then looked up and nodded.

"And your hair is all wrong," Theo said, and turned to his friends. "Do either of you know a hair-growing charm?"

"I do, but I don't know how to cut hair," Daphne offered.

Theo waved his hand. "We'll get Flippy to do that part."

Daphne drew her wand and said, " _Vivafollium_ " and carefully twisted her wand until Ace's hair was about shoulder-length. Ace's eyes grew even wider.

"Flippy!" Theo called. Flippy immediately popped in, and Ace yelped.

"Ace, this is Flippy, my house elf. Flippy, this is Ace, I need you to fix his hair," Theo said.

Flippy popped out, and popped in again a moment later, carrying a large pair of shears. She pointed at a spot on the floor. "Master Theo's Acey, you is being sitting here. You is not moving."

Ace hesitantly sat, and Flippy set to work, activating the animation on the shears and directing them over Ace's hair.

Theo sat on the bench, watching. "The thing is, Ace....we can't be friends."

Ace looked up at him with those big eyes. "What do you mean?"

Theo hesitated, and Blaise cut in. "What Theo means is that people can't know that we were friends over the summer. It's....complicated, Ace. I can't explain everything. But it could be dangerous to Emily and your parents if people knew. So we need you to tell people you met us just now. Don't mention anything about the summer if you can help it. Can you do that?"

Ace nodded solemnly.

Blaise smiled at him. "Good. Now, your hair is done and you should go back to your compartment, okay?"

Ace grinned and jumped up. "Thanks!" He hugged Blaise, then Theo, then Daphne, and left.

Daphne hit the door with a locking charm as soon as he was through it. "Well," she said, "this should be interesting."

"Merlin," Theo murmured. He rubbed his face, then ran his hands through his hair. "Merlin, Circe, and Methuselah." He glanced up and saw Blaise smirking at him. "Stop it, Blaise."

Blaise laughed.

Theo sighed and sat back. His mind was whirling. Emily, and her parents, and his father, and the school, and Malfoy, and Ace.…. "I'm screwed, aren't I?"

Blaise hummed thoughtfully. "Actually, I'm inclined to think you got lucky. If Ace had run across the Great Hall to hug you at breakfast tomorrow, you'd be screwed. As it is, you can get in front of this."

"That's true. I can. I should...." Theo trailed off, his mind still whirling.

"You should write to Emily, and to your father," Blaise said firmly.

"Right." Theo said. He sat up, shook himself a little, and pulled out parchment and a quill. "Right," he said again.

The parchment looked very large and very blank, and he couldn't think what to say. The image of Emily smiling so sweetly at him flashed through his mind, and he couldn't think what to say. "Worst Hogwarts Express ride ever," he muttered.

"Not really. Ace isn't nearly as bad as dementors," Daphne cheerfully pointed out.

"True," Theo replied, looking up. "No dementors this year. Is Sirius Black still at large?"

"I haven't heard anything since he was spotted in Albania in July," Blaise replied.

Daphne frowned. "I don't remember that."

Blaise shrugged. "The English newspapers didn't have much about it, other than the bare fact. The French newspapers said he was drunk out of his mind and ranting about hunting down someone named Peter, which my mother says is probably Peter Pettigrew, who he was jailed for killing. I imagine he's quite mad." Blaise looked over at Theo. "Quit stalling, you've got letters to write."

Theo had finished his report to his father and was trying to figure out what to write to Emily when there was a knock on the compartment door. Daphne undid the locking charm and opened the door.

Ace stood in the hallway, with two other boys and a girl, all first years. "Hi Daphne!" he chirped. "This is Jack and Rowan and Lily. Can you please fix their robes and hair too?"

"Of course, Ace," Daphne replied, and waved them in, grinning at Theo.

Theo sighed and put his head in his hands as Daphne and Blaise showed the firsties how to adjust their robes. He picked his head up long enough to call Flippy, then closed his eyes and buried his face again.

"Theo?" Ace asked, touching Theo's arm.

Theo lifted his head and looked at Ace. "Hey Ace."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm okay. It's a little funny for me, because all summer I had the muggle world and the wizarding world, and I'm not used to combining them."

Ace thought about that. "I guess none of your other muggle friends turned out to be wizards before?"

Theo sighed. "I didn't actually know any muggles before this summer. None of us did. Some wizards think that knowing muggles makes you not as good a wizard."

"Oh." Ace looked down at his hands, then up at Theo again. "Does that mean they'll think I'm a bad wizard?"

"It...yeah, Ace, it might." Theo looked down at his hands.

"Do you think I won't be a good wizard?" Ace asked, sounding worried.

"You'll be a fine wizard, Ace. And Blaise and Daphne and I are going to try to make it so people don't pick on you."

"Okay. Thanks, Theo."

Theo looked up. The boys' haircuts were done, and they were running their hands through it while Daphne showed Lily a couple of basic wizarding hair tricks.

Theo sighed and turned back to his letter. This was going to suck.

\---

"Mum, is that one of those owls out there?" Emily asked.

Julie opened the window and backed up to allow the owl to enter. "I didn't expect it so soon! Didn't Professor McGonagall say most students didn't write home until tomorrow?"

"Well, Ace has always been very determined when he decides to do something," Ian commented. "I'm glad there wasn't any trouble getting an owl. It's a handsome one, too."

The owl clacked its beak as if acknowledging the compliment, and Ian pulled out the bag of owl treats they'd bought in Diagon Alley for the purpose.

"That's strange," Julie said, looking at the folded parchment.

Ian held out a treat for the owl. "What's strange?"

"It's addressed to Emily."

Emily stood up, puzzled. "For me?"

Her mother handed her the letter. It was the same heavy parchment as Ace's Hogwarts papers, and her name was inscribed on one side in an elegant script. On the other side, a wax seal with a circle of stars held it closed.

Emily turned it over a couple of times, and finally shrugged and broke the seal. She gasped. "It's - it's from Theo!"

"From Theo?" her mother echoed.

Emily nodded, and her parents crowded around her to read over her shoulders.

Theo had tried and failed to find an easy, graceful way of writing this letter, but in the end had told the blunt truth, as simply as he could.

> Dear Emily,
> 
> I'm a wizard. I'm very sorry for not telling you before now, but as you know, it is normally forbidden. I didn't know I was allowed to tell you until I bumped into Ace just now on the train. I figured it would be better to write to you myself instead of letting you find out from Ace.
> 
> (Ace is fine, by the way. He has made friends and is in good spirits. I will do what I can to help him adjust.)
> 
> Blaise is also a wizard, and Daphne is a witch. None of us had met any muggles before this summer. We all enjoyed exploring the muggle world, and we very much enjoyed knowing you and your family. I hope we can still be friends.
> 
> I hope you will forgive me.
> 
> I have written to my father as well, and he will probably visit or write to your parents.
> 
> The owl is my personal owl. His name is Scorpio, I'm afraid. I thought this was an excellent name for an owl when I was five. I have told him there may be an answer, so he will wait until either you give him a letter for me or Ace or my father, or you tell him there will be no answer.
> 
> Best regards, now and always,
> 
> Theophanes Nott

Emily let out a deep breath. Her mum put an arm around her shoulders. "How are you feeling, Em?" she asked.

"I - okay, I guess? I don't know, really. It's....it's a little weird."

"That's understandable. But you knew he couldn't tell you everything about his background, you know," Julie pointed out.

"Yeah, but....I don't know, it's still different." Emily put the letter down on the desk. Her hands were trembling a little bit.

"That's understandable," Ian said, sitting down again. "It doesn't have to be okay right away."

"Do you think Theo or Thaddeus could show us a little more magic next time we see them?" Julie asked. "Professor McGonagall was kind, but of course she was quite busy and I didn't like to make demands on her time."

"Quite possibly. Now I'm rather wondering if Thaddeus ever used magic when he was out fishing with me," Ian replied.

Another owl flew in the still-open window. Everyone jumped, and Julie stepped forward to take the letter this one was carrying.

"Is this one from Ace?" Ian asked.

"I don't think so. It's addressed to us, though," Julie replied, holding up the letter to show "Mr. and Mrs. Ian Harris" written on one side.

Julie sat down next to Ian and broke the wax.

> My friends,
> 
> I understand I am to congratulate you on the advent of magic in your son, Arthur. Theo seems to believe, in the hot-headed passions of youth, that this constitutes some sort of emergency, but I expect that our cooler heads will acknowledge the odd workings of the Fates and think of it no further.
> 
> I am happy to extend my friendship, and that of my House, towards you and your son as he comes into our society. Feel free to call upon me at any time, if you should have questions or need of assistance.
> 
> I look forward to many pleasant meetings, including our planned fishing expedition a week hence.
> 
> Your humble and obedient servant,
> 
> Thaddeus Nott  
>  Head of the House of Nott

Ian chuckled. "Well, that sounds like Thaddeus, all right. We'll have to send a note back."

"Yes, notes all round," Julie agreed. She dug in a drawer and came up with some patterned stationery. "I'll write to Thaddeus, thanking him and maybe asking to see him tomorrow some time? I think that might be nice."

As she sat, Julie passed a sheet of stationary paper to Emily. "You should write to Theo, Em. You don't have to say much. Maybe even just that it's a little weird and you need a little time to think about it."

Emily looked like she wanted to protest, but she bit her lip and took the paper.

A few minutes later, the owls left with the completed letters. Julie shut the window with a sigh.

"That....was a lot. Anyone want to watch a movie while we eat dinner?" Ian suggested.

Julie smiled weakly and hugged her husband. "I think that's a good idea."

\---

> Hi Theo
> 
> It's okay that you're a wizard. Or at least it will be okay. It's a little weird. But it'll be okay.
> 
> Maybe you can show me some magic when you get home for Christmas, yeah?
> 
> Emily

Theo folded the letter and carefully tucked it into his bag. Better than he'd feared, not as good as he'd hoped. He'd have to think of something nice to show her at Christmas.

"Why is that firstie waving at you?" Pansy asked, elbowing him.

Theo looked up. The tables of the Great Hall were spread with the usual excellent breakfast, and the tables were filled with chattering students. From the Gryffindor table, Ace was waving to him. Theo smiled a little, careful not to seem too enthusiastic to Pansy, and waved back.

He sighed for Pansy's benefit. "His name is Harris - Ace Harris, I think. He bumped into me on the Express and I was foolish enough to be reasonably kind, and I suspect he's now decided to attach himself to me."

Pansy squinted across at Ace. "I don't think I know a Harris family. What's his birth?"

Theo shrugged. "I didn't ask. I think you're overestimating the extent of our interaction."

"Well, he doesn't look as sloppy as most muggleborns," Pansy decided. "Probably halfblood."

"Probably."

\---

Emily and her parents were eating dinner the next evening when Ace's letter finally came. Julie let the owl in and gave it an owl treat.

"The school owls aren't nearly as impressive as the Nott family owls, are they?" Ian asked, studying the owl.

"Since when has a public service ever been as nice as a private one? And how is this our life, that we're comparing magical letter-delivering owls?" Julie said, shaking her head.

Emily giggled, feeling a little hysterical still.

Julie opened the letter, which was folded but not sealed with wax.

> Dear Mum and Dad and Emily,
> 
> I'm at Hogwarts! It's totally wicked! I got on the train and I met Jack and Rowan and Lily, and they're really nice and we ate lunch and also lots and lots of weird candies. I'll bring some home if I can. There's chocolate frogs that jump and Every Flavor Beans and flossing mints and all sorts of things.
> 
> And Theo and Blaise and Daphne are here! I ran into Theo and he was so surprised! He gave me a new haircut. They say they can be friends with me, but I can't ever tell anyone that they knew me before the train because someone might get hurt. So I'll try not to tell.
> 
> And then we got here and the castle is huge! And Hagrid is huge and we went on a lake and there was a hat that sings and talks to you and I'm in Gryffindor! Jack is in Gryffindor too, but Rowan and Lily went to Hufflepuff. I have a huge red bed in my room, and so do Jack and Harry and Tiberius and Declan. Declan has an older brother named Seamus who is here too.
> 
> Today I had Charms and Transfiguration. Charms is super fun! We learned to make light with our wands! We say Lumos and our wands glow! I asked the professor if you could make light sabers but he doesn't know. Transfiguration is harder. We had to turn toothpicks into needles and it takes lots of thinking.
> 
> Seamus says he'll show us where the Owlry is if we go now, and then we'll have dinner. I'll write again soon!
> 
> Ace

"Well, that's Ace for you," Julie concluded.

Emily smiled and leaned against her mother. Ace sounded so eager and happy, and it was comforting.

Ian took the letter and began scanning it. "I'm glad Thaddeus is coming over later. If we had to wait for Ace to give a clearer explanation of some of these details, we'd be waiting forever."

\---

Thaddeus had said he would come at eight, and at eight o'clock exactly they heard a loud cracking sound like a gunshot, followed by a knock on the back door. Puzzled, Ian threaded through the kitchen and opened the door to find Thaddeus, in his wizarding robes, on the back patio.

"Thaddeus! Great. Come on in," Ian said, waving him in.

"Thank you, and good evening," Thaddeus replied, stepping into the kitchen.

"May I ask, why the kitchen?"

Thaddeus greeted Julie, then replied, "I chose to apparate rather than walk, and I didn't want your neighbors to see me, so I used the back door."

"Apparate?"

"A magical method of transportation. You...well, let me demonstrate." Thaddeus turned on the spot and appeared at the other end of the room with another sharp cracking sound.

Julie gasped and dropped a dish on the floor, where it promptly shattered. "I beg your pardon, Julie," Thaddeus said as he reparo'd the dish and levitated it onto the counter.

"Will Ace be able to do that?" Ian's eyes were round as saucers.

"Eventually. It isn't taught until the students are sixteen, and he won't be eligible for a license until he comes of age."

"Well, it'll save on buying a first car," Ian said, with a wry smile. He caught his wife's eye and saw her visibly relax at his casual humor. "We did have a few questions from Ace's letter."

Julie pulled the letter out from a drawer. She scanned it, then held it out to Thaddeus. "There's nothing private here; you might as well read it. Please, have a seat." She gestured to a couch in the adjacent living room.

Thaddeus took the letter and settled himself on the couch, calmly read it, and briefly explained about the four houses, the Sorting Hat, and Hagrid's role in the whole business. "I have a copy of _Hogwarts, A History_ , which I can loan to you," he added.

"We would appreciate that, thanks," Ian replied. "But what about this bit about Theo and the others telling him not to mention the summer?"

Thaddeus folded his hands in his lap. "There is, I'm afraid, a certain amount of prejudice against muggles and those connected with them. There is no real danger now, of course, but there have been times in the past when that prejudice erupted into violence. Being discreet about the connection is a wise precaution."

"Is Ace in any danger?" Julie asked.

"I am sure he is not," Thaddeus assured her. "He will naturally have his share of pranks and youthful hijinks to deal with - especially in Gryffindor, which is known for its high spirits - but Minerva McGonagall is a stern old autocrat and I'm sure the students will not cross the line."

\---

> Dear Emily,
> 
> I hope you don't mind if I write to you again, despite the surprises earlier this week. I have missed you.
> 
> I'm enclosing some photos of Hogwarts, or I will be if they turn out properly. Muggle electronics don't do well around magic, but we did some experimenting over the summer and Daphne thinks the disposable cameras we bought will work. She also claims that muggle film and wizarding film are the same...well, we'll see. I paid one of the younger students to develop them for me, so they'll be moving photos. Perhaps for the next ones I should send you the camera, and you can have them developed as muggle photos? Let me know what you would prefer. Obviously you can't show moving photos to your friends.
> 
> (It feels strange, and very relieving, to be able to speak openly to you instead of dancing around certain topics. I like it.)
> 
> The first one is of Blaise and me in our dorm room. We're in Slytherin house, so the colors are green and silver. The next one is our other three roommates - the ponce in the middle with the hair is Draco Malfoy, and the one on the right is Vince Crabbe, and the one on the left is Greg Goyle. Vince and Greg pretty much just follow Draco around. Draco is a pain in the neck, and his father is quite powerful, so he fancies himself a leader. Blaise and I usually ignore him.
> 
> (Well, I ignore him. Blaise sort of wants me to challenge him, since my family is also pretty well-connected, but that's because Blaise loves politics. I'd really rather not.)
> 
> They're not looking at the camera because I've never had a camera before, and I didn't want to draw attention to it. Took me a while to find a time to take the photo without them noticing.
> 
> The third one is the Great Hall. I took several, because I was trying to do it without holding up the camera, and this one came out okay. There's definitely more beautiful places, but the Great Hall tends to be the center of Hogwarts, and I thought you should see it. The ceiling is charmed to look like the sky outside, as Ace may have told you, so it isn't always gray. It was just an overcast day when I took the photo.
> 
> (My father says that in his day someone changed the charm's target location as a prank, so they spent a few days putting up with darkness at breakfast and lunch and blinding sunlight at dinner. It's hard enough to wake up properly on cloudy winter mornings; I'd hate to have to take classes after a dark breakfast, even with candlelight.)
> 
> The fourth photo is of Daphne working in the empty classroom we've commandeered. Hogwarts used to be a lot bigger, so there's loads of empty rooms. Lots of people just pick one to adopt. It's easy enough to put a few locking charms on the door, and usually there's old furniture and whatnot to rearrange or transfigure. I've finally figured out how to get my transfigured chairs cushioned just right this year, but Daphne won't always let us use them. She's working on some potions experiments, and it can be risky if the transfiguration might interact with the potion somehow.
> 
> I think that's all I'll say for now. I could go on and on, but I don't expect that you want hundreds of inches about Hogwarts.
> 
> Yours, as ever,
> 
> Theophanes Nott

\---

> Dear Theo,
> 
> I didn't know your name was Theophanes. I assumed it was Theodore, and I guess you figured out Theophanes isn't exactly common. Theophanes. I kind of like it.
> 
> I'm enclosing a couple of photos of me and Melody Price, my best friend from school. She was away all summer, but it's great to have her back. Our teachers have already started in with the group projects, so the piles of paper on the bed behind us are for a poster we're supposed to be making about a character in a Shakespeare play. We picked Lady Macbeth, mostly because she's pretty easy. We have to make a psychological assessment to go with it.
> 
> Could you send me some normal photos of yourself? I like the moving ones a lot and it was very interesting to see Hogwarts, but I told Melody I was taking pictures for you, and she wants to see what you look like, and of course I couldn't show her anything you'd sent. You said you could just send me the camera, and that sounds great. I can get it developed here.
> 
> Can you explain more about potions? Ace mentioned that class, and he's not very clear but it sounds like the teacher is kind of terrible. It sort of sounds like a cooking class, but then everything smells foul and they all get yelled at?
> 
> School is settling in pretty well here. The teachers are piling on the homework, which I guess they do every year, but it always seems to catch me off-guard. My art teacher is nice, and so is my maths teacher, which is good, because that's not my strongest subject. I'm taking Biology this year and it's much harder. We have to dissect a pig later on! I'm feeling kind of squeamish about that.
> 
> I hope you write back soon.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Emily Harris
> 
> PS - I'm also enclosing a watercolor I did of some autumn crocuses. You always used pencil when we went out together - have you tried watercolors?

\---

"Some of us are putting together a game of football! Anyone want to join us?" Ace announced at the Slytherin table.

Theo froze. It was too late to wave Ace off, and Ace had chosen to lean in next to Blaise, so he was out of range for whispering.

Malfoy was sneering, but Theo could see that it was just an automatic sneer. Malfoy didn't know enough to know how offended he ought to be.

Hoping to get Ace to leave before Malfoy figured it out, Theo leaned forward. "Thank you for issuing the invitation, Harris. I'm sure that any who are interested will join you outside after the meal."

Ace seemed about to say something else, but he caught himself and just nodded before pulling back and moving off down the hall. Theo carefully did not sigh in relief, conscious of the eyes on him.

"Why do you put up with him?" Pansy asked.

Theo shrugged with elaborate nonchalance. "It's not worth the trouble of getting rid of him, really. And McGonagall would probably take points if I did - you know how protective she is of her cubs, not to mention the excuse to favor her own house."

"He's a nuisance," Crabbe muttered.

"Malfoy teach you a new word, Crabbe?" Theo asked lightly.

Crabbe subsided into silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dorothy Sayers' novel Gaudy Night mentions how it takes a few minutes to remember the correct twists and balancing to wear an academic robe correctly, which inspired Theo's adjustment of Ace's robes.


	8. Chapter 8

> Dear Emily,
> 
> The first week of school has gone well. Our Defense Against the Dark Arts class was particularly notable. The professor this year is a retired Auror (Aurors catch people who do bad things - I believe the muggle term is police?) and he started by demonstrating some of the worst curses in existence on large spiders. Then he cast Imperius - that's one of them, it controls someone's mind - on us! I'm not at all sure he was allowed to do that, to be honest, but of course no one bothers about laws and things here. Still, it might be useful someday. We were supposed to try to fight it off, which was mostly a failure. I sort of fought it eventually, but I think it took a dozen tries. I hear Harry Potter managed it the first time.

Theo broke off writing, wondering whether to tell Emily the truth: that Moody had vindictively cursed him and Malfoy, clearly resenting their Death Eater connections. It had been....unpleasant. Even to himself, he didn't like to think about it.

Shaking himself, he looked up at his friends. Daphne had wanted to try some of the potions ideas she'd come up with from studying muggle chemistry, so they'd come down to their empty classroom where she could work safely. She appeared to be starting a third cauldron.

"Another one?" Blaise asked her.

"Another one," Daphne confirmed, nodding decisively. "The first two worked so well, Blaise! Look, the yarrow and blueberries should have melted the cauldron, but the buffered solution meant I could add them immediately!"

Blaise sighed. He'd finished the reading he'd brought, and now he was clearly bored.

"You could read the muggle books I brought," Daphne offered.

Blaise chuckled. "What would I do with them? I'm not brilliant at potions."

"You could....I don't know, you could use it for transfiguration," Daphne replied, somewhat absently now, as she was studying her notes.

"How are muggle books supposed to help with transfiguration?"

Daphne looked up properly now. "Actually I was thinking you should try transfiguring air at some point. I took some notes on it...oh that's right, it was that day at the end of August that you were with your mother."

Blaise frowned. "Air can't be transfigured."

"Actually I think maybe it could be," Daphne replied, flipping through her notes. "You can't transfigure something if you don't understand its structure. Remember I told you, muggles understand what air is made of!"

"Does this involve invisible spinning balls again?" Theo asked.

"Everything involves subatomic particles, Theo, that's the point of chemistry," Daphne replied.

Blaise smiled tolerantly. "Go on, then, tell me about transfiguring air."

Daphne smiled back at him. "Well, air is a fluid, and it's mostly made of nitrogen and oxygen. The nitrogens bond to each other in pairs and cling really tight, which is good because it makes the air safe. If the atoms were looser they might explode if they got too hot. The oxygens also bond in pairs, though not as tightly, and the oxygen is what we actually need when we breathe. Then there's other things mixed in - carbon dioxide, and other gases, and little bits of water, and..."

Theo smiled, letting Daphne's explanation wash over him. It was good to be just the three of them again.

\---

> Dear Emily,
> 
> The first week of school has gone well. Our Defense Against the Dark Arts class was particularly notable. The professor this year is a retired Auror (Aurors catch people who do bad things - I believe the muggle term is police?) and he started by demonstrating some of the worst curses in existence on large spiders. Then he cast Imperius - that's one of them, it controls someone's mind - on us! I'm not at all sure he was allowed to do that, to be honest, but of course no one bothers about laws and things here. Still, it might be useful someday. We were supposed to try to fight it off, which was mostly a failure. I sort of fought it eventually, but I think it took a dozen tries. I hear Harry Potter managed it the first time.
> 
> Thank you so much for the photos. I've stuck the one of just you to the inside of my trunk, so I see it whenever I go in to get my books. I'm enclosing a camera with photos of me and the three of us - we did our best to pick backgrounds without anything obviously magical in them, so hopefully they'll be okay for sharing.
> 
> I feel certain there must be a way to develop film and get both types of photos, but I don't know what it is. I'll try to look it up, but it's much harder to find things in our library than in the one near you. Magical libraries don't have computers to tell you where to go. I suppose I could ask Flitwick (he teaches Charms and is likely to know that sort of thing) but I'd rather not try to explain why a pureblood wants to make muggle photos.
> 
> Anyway, Miss Price looks very pleasant, and I look forward to meeting her. I hope your project went well. I confess I don't know who Lady Macbeth is, as I've only read two of Shakespeare's plays ( _Othello_ and _Twelfth Night_ , both of which my father and I saw performed in town) but if you tell me which play she's in I'll make a point of reading it.
> 
> Potions is taught by my Head of House, Professor Snape. He's....well, it's complicated. My father says he's a genius, actually, totally brilliant both as a Potions Master and in the study of some of the darker types of magic. Father says he used to invent all sorts of clever little spells and things. But there was a war that ended when I was little, and Professor Snape sort of ended up on the wrong side, I suppose. Or, more accurately, he had worked for both sides at different points, so at the end no one really trusted him, and he's not very good at ingratiating himself with important people, and so somehow he ended up teaching. He's a pretty terrible teacher, even though he knows the subject well, and he doesn't like teaching much. On top of that, he totally hates Gryffindors, Merlin knows why. Unfortunately that means Ace is getting the worst of it.
> 
> If Ace can study and figure out the basics, Snape will leave him alone. The textbook is pretty good, and I'll slip Ace a note with a couple of other books to read too. It's a lot of work, but Snape is much less scary if you know what you're doing.
> 
> (Ace should also bring his book to history class and read instead of listening to the lectures. Professor Binns is useless and should have been replaced ages ago.)
> 
> As for Potions itself, it's actually fairly interesting once you get the hang of it. I've never done any cooking, so I can't compare, but it's rather fun to watch the potion develop and change. Daphne likes it much more than I do, and she gets really excited about balancing the effects and working out how the magic will twist together. Recently she's been working with an idea she got from muggle chemistry, about starting with a buffered solution so that the added ingredients will combine smoothly instead of reacting. The theory is a little beyond me, but she's very excited about it.
> 
> Funnily enough, dissecting things is pretty common in Potions, usually as part of ingredient preparation. I hope it won't be too bad for you.
> 
> The teachers do pile on the homework, don't they? We're getting loads. No group projects, though - we don't really get those. But I have to admit that making a poster with a friend sounds rather more pleasant than essays about transfiguration theory. I can _do_ transfiguration just fine, but writing about the theory is exhausting.
> 
> Thank you for the painting. It's lovely. I especially like how well you captured the delicate colors. I have used watercolors, assuming we use the term to describe the same thing, but you seem to be able to get brighter purples and pinks than my set was capable of, so possibly we use different types.
> 
> Yours, as ever,
> 
> Theophanes Nott

\---

Theo worried that the pressure to distance himself from Ace would put him in an untenable position, but the next week it lifted, as the school was buzzing about the new notices about auditions.

According to the notices, Quicksilver Pictures was seeking actors for the first wizarding cinematic production, and those interested should sign up in Professor Flitwick's office. Further details circulated through the grapevine; Quicksilver Pictures turned out to be three Ravenclaws who were creating a magical movie as a special seventh-year Charms project. The students involved were Elora Dunn, half-blood, and Capella Black and Aquila Tain, both purebloods. The forced exposure to muggle movies the previous spring was paying unexpected dividends, but naturally nobody spoke of that.

The name of the movie took longer to be revealed, but the morning after the first round of auditions, Theo came up to breakfast to find the Gryffindor table buzzing with hilarity. "What's got them stirred up?" Theo murmured to Blaise as he sat down.

"Turns out the Quicksilver Pictures people are making a movie called _Percy Weasley: Dementor Slayer_ ," Blaise replied.

Theo's brows drew together as he thought back. "Percy Weasley was Head Boy last year, wasn't he?"

Blaise nodded. "And he was a high-strung disaster in the library for most of it. I gather that's the joke."

Theo snorted. "Any idea who the actors will be?"

"Too soon to know. I hear they'll be using polyjuice, though. Black asked Norac if she'd be willing to make it for them."

"Well, that should be interesting."

\---

> Dear Theo,
> 
> It's okay that I still call you Theo, isn't it? Only you always sign your letters Theophanes. I should have asked before now.
> 
> The photos are perfect, thank you. Melody says you're super cute. She especially likes your long hair. I do too, actually, but somehow it didn't occur to me that it would be something she'd notice. Most normal guys with long hair are being kind of rebellious or scruffy or whatever, but you don't give off that feel so I sort of forgot about it. I guess it's because long hair is normal for you?
> 
> Oh, is that why Ace said you gave him a new haircut? That would make sense.
> 
> Can I ask you something? Why did you come introduce yourself to us? At the time we all figured you had just moved in or whatever, but it seems like you're worried you might get in trouble or something for knowing someone who isn't magical. Mum and Dad said your dad said there was some tension in your world over that sort of thing, so I guess that's part of it? But what made you come out and talk to non-magical people?
> 
> Emily

\---

> Dear Emily,
> 
> You are welcome to call me Theo. I am in the habit of signing letters formally, but I can stop if you would prefer.
> 
> You are correct about the hair, on both counts: wizards wear their hair longer than muggles do, and I arranged for Ace to have longer hair so he wouldn't stand out. Daphne used a hair-growing charm on him, and I called Flippy to cut his hair.
> 
> As for the other...well, I think I have no choice but to begin at the beginning.
> 
> Hogwarts was founded roughly a thousand years ago by four magical scholars who wished to take in students. The legend says that as time went on, they argued: Slytherin wanted to take only students who were of magical family, believing that students born to muggles were dangerous or a bad influence, and the other three disagreed. Some sources dispute this legend, but most wizarding people believe it. Whether it started a thousand years ago or not, the fact remains that modern wizards are divided on the question.
> 
> I grew up in pureblood society. I can trace my magical heritage back at least eighteen generations, and everyone I know can trace theirs back at least ten generations. I was taught for a long time that muggles are not worth considering, and that muggleborns are at best impolite and bumbling.
> 
> Not all wizards - not even all pureblood wizards - think this way. Dumbledore is known as a great champion for muggles and muggleborns, for example. There is, as my father indicated, a certain amount of friction over the topic.
> 
> As for why I broke away from that, I have actually told you that part already, although I downplayed it at the time. Do you remember the first movie we watched together? I asked if you had E.T. and mentioned that we had watched most of it, but not the end. That is actually the truth of the matter: Daphne and Blaise and I, along with a number of our pureblood classmates, were briefly kidnapped at the end of last year. We were locked in a room and forced to watch E.T., and whoever kidnapped us stopped it when Elliott and his friends started riding their bikes, and said that if we wanted to know how the story ended, we needed to befriend a muggle.
> 
> The movie itself would not have done it, but the challenge was an interesting one. I started watching the muggles outside our gates, and of course Daphne loves learning new things and Blaise is always eager to create new social connections, and so the idea caught our fancy. We'll have to tell you someday about the whole ridiculous process. We made some very laughable mistakes.
> 
> I am very glad I met you. Even if Ace had not been a wizard I would still be glad to know you. The problem now is that the tension between the purebloods and the muggleborn has sometimes erupted into violence in the past, and there have been signs this summer that it may do so again. My father and I have plans for every contingency, but the safest option is for those contingencies to not come to pass.
> 
> Ace is safe, for the time being at least. His haircut and a few tips I gave him mean that most of the people who would object to his birth are assuming he is a half-blood. And Blaise and Daphne and I will continue to hide our connection to you, lest we bring you to the notice of those who might wish you ill.
> 
> Yours, as ever,
> 
> Theo

\---

> Dear Theo,
> 
> Okay, I'm glad that you're keeping everyone safe and all, but you don't have to be weird about it. I'm kind of bummed that I can't come to Hogwarts, but whatever. It's not that big a deal.
> 
> I'm glad someone showed you E.T. like that, though, even if it was sort of obnoxious of them. Kind of clever, though. Do you know who did it?
> 
> Ace has been talking about this Triwizard Tournament thing. Does that affect you at all? Has it happened before? He's super excited about it, but I don't think he knows very much about it.
> 
> The weather is getting cooler here, and the trees are all changing colors. There's a large rowan tree in front of our school, and sometimes the sunlight hits it and the red berries and gold leaves seem to make the air around it glow. I love stopping there and just breathing it in.
> 
> Melody and I and some friends are thinking of going to a Take That concert in a couple of weeks. They're a super hot music group. I'd offer to send you one of their albums, but I guess you don't have a way to play it. And you probably can't wear a t-shirt. Well, I'll get you something and you can have it when you come home.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Emily

\---

> Dear Emily,
> 
> I apologize, I did not intend to be weird about it. I'm not certain what you are objecting to, exactly, but I certainly didn't intend to offend you. I'm sorry.
> 
> I don't know who kidnapped us, no. I have a few guesses, of course. The most likely candidate is Hermione Granger, a muggleborn witch who is top of our class in most subjects. She can be pretty pushy. She fits in better now than she did first year, but she's still very strident about her opinions. (I hear she's starting an organization this year to help house elves or some such, which is laughable but also entirely characteristic of her.)
> 
> However, it was probably multiple people working together, and it may have been spearheaded by someone else. Most students refused to talk about it afterwards, so we're not even sure how many were targeted. I have no idea whether any of the others made the attempt over the summer.
> 
> As for the Triwizard Tournament, I don't blame Ace for not knowing much, as the last time it took place was 200 years ago. It's a competition between three major magical schools in which a champion from each school competes in three tasks. The prize money is pretty good, but it's mostly an opportunity for the schools to show off to each other. It won't affect me much - students will be coming from the other two schools, but they'll be older students and I doubt I'll have much interaction with them. Quidditch is canceled, but I don't play, so watching the Tournament tasks won't be that different from watching Quidditch games.
> 
> I haven't heard much muggle music, and the bits I have heard have been incidental to other experiences, like movies or visiting muggle stores. I'd like to hear some properly, when I have the opportunity to listen.
> 
> Yours, as ever,
> 
> Theo

\---

> Dear Theo,
> 
> To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what upset me either. I guess you sounded sort of condescending? I mean, it's a little weird that you don't want people to know about me. I went to Diagon Alley with my family, to get Ace's wand and books and things, and it didn't seem dangerous or anything. I guess some people were kind of snooty, but that's not the same, you know?
> 
> I don't know if that makes sense. I wish we could talk about this properly; it's hard to say what I mean in a letter. But I don't think you meant to be snooty or anything, it just felt weird.
> 
> Anyway, the concert was awesome! It was me and Melody and Hannah and Jessie and Shelby. We couldn't see all that well, but the energy of the crowd was really fun anyway. They did A Million Love Songs and Babe, and I was kind of hoping they'd do If This Is Love, but they didn't. It isn't one of their big singles, so I guess that's not surprising. And they did a new song called Back For Good that I totally loved. I bought a shirt for myself, and a copy of Everything Changes on CD for you. Most of my music is on cassette, but CDs seem to be getting more popular so we should probably get you a Discman or something.
> 
> I should probably go work on my maths homework. Algebra sucks. Mum says it's not so bad once you get the hang of it, but I definitely haven't gotten the hang of it yet.
> 
> Emily

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Take That is a real band - I did some searching to figure out who might have been touring Britain in the fall of 1994, and listened to a few of their songs.
> 
> My mother commented that the maturity Theo and Emily (who are only 14, after all) show in handling these conflicts is the real fantasy here. She's not wrong, but writing chapters and chapters of pointless teenage angsting didn't appeal to me.


	9. Chapter 9

The peace was not to last. A month into the school year, Theo turned a corner to find a confrontation between Malfoy and his goons and Ace.

"....but, but I didn't!" Ace was sputtering. He was backed up against the wall, and Crabbe and Goyle were boxing him in so he couldn't get away.

"And now I find out you're nothing but a filthy mudblood," Malfoy sneered, leaning forward and pushing his wand into Ace's face. "I should teach you a lesson about knowing your place!"

Malfoy hadn't cast anything yet (he always did talk too much), but Ace was clearly terrified. His cheeks were flushed, the way Emily's got when she was excited, and his eyes were wide and beginning to swim with tears.

" _Fullonum_ ," Malfoy cast, and suddenly Ace was coughing and gagging on a mouth full of soap, while Malfoy laughed at him. Ace spat some of it out, but his face was turning red and he was crying properly now.

In his mind's eye, Theo saw Emily in the same position - coughing and gagging while the wizards tormenting her laughed - and suddenly he couldn't be discreet anymore. " _Impedimenta_ ," he snapped, hitting Malfoy in the back.

All three of them turned, Malfoy slower than the other two. Crabbe and Goyle started towards him, but a pair of quick tripping jinxes took care of them for the moment.

Malfoy was finally getting his wand aimed at Theo, so Theo cast a stunning spell at him, and then stunned Crabbe and Goyle for good measure.

Theo blinked, slightly surprised at how quickly that had gone, and walked over to Ace, who was still coughing and wiping his eyes. " _Anapneo_ ," Theo cast carefully, and was relieved when it worked correctly and Ace stopped coughing.

Ace hurled himself forward, hugging Theo. Theo hugged him back automatically. When Ace didn't let go, but seemed to be snuffling against Theo's robes, Theo patted him on the shoulder and murmured, "Sorry about that, Acey."

After a minute, Ace let go, still sniffing.

Theo looked him up and down. "Here, wipe your face," he said, conjuring a handkerchief and handing it over. While Ace complied, Theo used a quick cleaning charm to tidy Ace's robes.

Theo was at a loss for what to do next. Even though he'd dealt with the immediate problem, Ace still didn't feel safe. And, truth be told, Ace wasn't safe. Malfoy would be furious about this, not to mention the rest of the pureblood students.

Malfoy. Theo had a sinking feeling in his stomach. Malfoy would tell Slytherin House that Theo had defended a mudblood, and then what? The pieces fell into place in his mind: Malfoy sneering, the others mocking, the bullying getting worse, possibly his father being affected. If the Dark Lord returned.....

Theo shook his head and returned to the present moment. The immediate need was to protect Ace.

Theo glanced around. At the end of the hall, a window was letting in a shaft of bright afternoon light. "C'mere," Theo muttered, and pulled Ace towards it.

"Point Me," Theo cast, to find north, and then he had Ace stand in the sunlight, facing due east. Theo walked around Ace three times, and ended up facing him. Theo put his hands on Ace's head, and recited, " _Tiruvantel ar varyuvantel vilya_."

The air shimmered briefly, and Theo dropped his hands. Ace's eyes were wide as he looked up at him.

"What was that?" Ace asked.

Theo shifted, suddenly uncertain. "Protection spell. It's family magic, on my mother's side. She used to cast it on me. My father used it sometimes, after she was gone."

Ace's face lit up. "Thanks!"

Theo grabbed his arm. "Hang on there, it's not a suit of armor or anything. It's supposed to give you an edge when you need it. Just....don't do anything stupid, okay?"

Ace nodded and hugged Theo again. "Thanks! I....Oh no! I'm late! I'm meeting Rowan in the library to work on our Potions essay!"

Theo chuckled and gave Ace a little push. "Go on then. Don't mention this to anyone, okay?"

"Okay!" Ace said, scooping up his book bag and dashing off.

Theo looked back down the hall. Malfoy would be waking up soon. It would be better if he wasn't there when that happened.

He had no idea what to do next.

\---

"You should have Obliviated them!" Daphne whispered after Theo had explained the situation to his friends. He'd have preferred to hole up in an empty classroom to plan properly, but it was time for dinner and anything that looked like hiding would only make matters worse.

"Too dangerous. I'm not skilled enough in mind magics and I've never done it before," Theo whispered back.

Daphne sighed.

"What's done is done," Blaise whispered. "The only way out is through."

"Through?" Theo asked.

Blaise nodded grimly. "It could be worse. The upcoming visitors from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang give you an excuse for caring about Slytherin's reputation. Focus on that and you should be all right."

"But what--" Theo began, but they had arrived at the Great Hall and whispering could be construed as weakness. He pasted a smile on his face and politely greeted the older students they were sitting across from.

Hopefully they'd have more time to talk after dinner.

\---

They didn't. Malfoy was waiting for Theo just inside the Slytherin common room.

"What's the idea, Nott?" Malfoy demanded, pushing into Theo's space.

Theo raised an eyebrow. "I beg your pardon?" he asked coolly.

"You attacked me in the hallway! You interfered when I was teaching that mudblood a lesson!" Malfoy was close enough that he was spitting in Theo's face, and loud enough that others were starting to listen.

Theo palmed his wand, just in case, and folded his arms. "So what if I did?"

"You defended a mudblood," Malfoy sneered. "A _mudblood_. What, are you going to go wallow with muggles next?"

Theo sighed dramatically. "Malfoy, do you ever even consider how this sort of thing looks, or are you entirely driven by your over-heated blood?"

Malfoy pulled back a bit. "How it looks?" He gestured to the people around him. "How it looks? How it looks to us, or how it looks to Dumbledore? I have no intention of being Dumbledore's lapdog, Nott. Do you?"

Theo hesitated. People were starting to mutter, and the feeling in the room was definitely against him.

Then a log in the fire broke, and the light in the room shifted. The sudden change reminded him of the performance he'd watched with his father, months before, and the dramatic monologues they'd discussed and dissected afterwards.

Theo shifted his stance, throwing back his shoulders and stepping sideways into the light of a torch. "O, sir, content you," he began, softly at first, but then louder, striving to channel into his own performance the power of Iago's conviction.

> "I follow him to serve my turn upon him:  
>  In following him, I follow but myself;  
>  Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,  
>  But seeming so, for my peculiar end:  
>  For when my outward action doth demonstrate  
>  The native act and figure of my heart  
>  In compliment extern, 'tis not long after  
>  But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve  
>  For daws to peck at: I am not what I am."

Theo stopped, catching his breath after the final line. There was silence. The lights were dimmer, except for the torch which lit his face; Blaise's doing, he supposed.

It took Malfoy a minute to recover. "And what is that supposed to mean?" he demanded.

A fifth year named Florian MacMillan spoke up. "It means lapdogs get fed, Malfoy, and sometimes it's useful to pretend to be one if it gets you what you want." Florian looked over at Theo. "It's an interesting speech, Nott; where did you come across it?"

"Read it this summer," Theo replied shortly, but turned his attention back to Malfoy. MacMillan was known to be bookish; if Theo ignored the question people would be unlikely to pursue it. "It means, Malfoy, that I am sick and tired of you lot dragging the reputation of Slytherin House in the muck. We're the house of cunning and ambition, but there's no ambition in tormenting firsties. There's no cunning in relying on superior numbers and your father's money to get your way."

Malfoy scowled. "My father--" he started.

"Your father's not here," Theo swiftly cut him off. "And his stunt last year failed. Let me know when you plan to do something on your own account for once."

"You make some good points, Nott." Aurelia Snow spoke up from one of the armchairs. A seventh year with an implacable calm and a cutting tongue, Aurelia had the respect of all of Slytherin house. "But why now? You must admit it looks.…targeted."

Theo turned a hand up, imitating his father's gesture. "Because this year it isn't just within Hogwarts anymore. I don't much care what Dumbledore thinks, though I do think a good reputation with him would be useful. But we are expecting visitors from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang this year. Forgive me if I would rather impress them with the elegance of our plans than the brutality of our thugs."

Snow smiled slightly. "Your foresight is appreciated, Nott."

"It isn't foresight," a voice sneered. The crowd parted and Graham Montague pushed his way forward, wand at the ready. He spat in Theo's direction. "Nott's just a coward."

Theo swallowed. He'd been hoping to avoid a fight, and Montague was a particularly vicious fighter. He'd spent four days the previous year boasting about his attempt to murder one of the Gryffindor Quidditch players during a match. He was also two years older than Theo. Theo knew how to duel, of course, but this summer most of the time he'd normally have spent sparring had been spent learning muggle footie instead. He cursed that decision internally, but kept his face calm.

"I can dodge folly without backing into fear," he tried, quoting another muggle book from his father's hidden library. He was glad that his voice came out steady.

"We'll see, won't we?" Montague replied. " _Confrigo!_ "

Theo skipped sideways, dodging the blasting curse more easily than he had expected. Perhaps the footie practice hadn't been entirely useless after all. He cast a quick _Salvio Hexa_ on himself and watched for Montague's next move. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the other students rearranging themselves and casting shields to make space for the impromptu duel.

_Obscuro!_

_Diffindo!_

_Viteriol!_

He had to stay calm, Theo reminded himself. Montague was bigger and stronger and older, but there was no way he was smarter than Theo.

_Icurcresco!_

_Deprimo!_

_Confundus!_

Theo continued to circle sideways, forcing Montague to move also. The movement seemed to disorient him a bit. Good.

_Agnazzar!_

Theo hissed and clapped a hand to his leg. It was just a graze, but it burned. He applied a quick numbing charm and raised his wand again. He had to think a way out of this.

_Defenestrio!_

_Orthotomus!_

_Stupefy!_

Montague was gasping for air. Theo wished, futilely, that he could use that somehow. But air was just...air. There was nothing to manipulate.

_Expulso!_

_Rictumsepra!_

_Muggles understand what air is made of_ , came Daphne's voice in his head.

Theo paused and snapped off a trio of Magic Missiles to buy himself a little time to think. Daphne had explained it at length - the little spinning balls, paired together with two bonds or three, waiting to be breathed in and used and breathed out again.

A brand new transfiguration in the middle of a duel was insanity, of course. But maybe if it was a familiar transfiguration....

_Furnunculus!_

Theo pointed his wand and reached out his magic. _Air to water_.

Theo fell, hitting the ground hard. The transfiguration hadn't worked, and it had given Montague a chance to land a Cudgeling Curse.

Theo gripped his wand tight, preventing Montague's _Expelliarmus_ from working, and sent back a Slug-vomiting Jinx. Not the most powerful of jinxes, but it distracted Montague for long enough that Theo could sit up.

_Manipalsie!_

_Diffindo!_

Theo was on his feet now, and Montague was breathing harder than ever. Montague blindfolded Theo with a sudden _Obscuro_ , but Theo blindly cast _Avis_ and tore it off.

_Incendio!_

_Bidaia!_

Theo reached again for the air around Montague's face. _Air to water._ No result.

_Krimpatul!_

_Incarcerous!_

_Tarantallegra!_

Theo fell again, his legs jerking spasmodically. Montague paused, clearly enjoying Theo's discomfort. Desperate, Theo reached out again, trying to focus his mind on smaller objects than he'd ever transfigured before. Air was made of nitrogen and oxygen. It went in and out of the lungs. _Air to water_.

This time it worked. Montague coughed, choked, stumbled backwards. Theo dispelled the jinx on his legs and got up.

Montague was bent over, wheezing, clearly in pain. He dropped his wand, fell to all fours, and vomited on the stone floor.

Theo stepped forward, put one foot on Montague's wand, and silently reversed the transfiguration. Montague gasped, moaned, and fell over onto his side.

Theo picked up Montague's wand and used it to vanish the vomit. The room still stank, but it would air out in time.

Everyone was staring at him.

Theo looked around, noting that Blaise and Daphne were in front of a couch by the fire, and finally stopped while facing Aurelia. He allowed the corners of his mouth to turn up. "Not a coward," he commented.

"Indeed not." Aurelia replied. She waved Theo to the couch Blaise and Daphne had claimed. Theo wished he could go hide in bed, but of course there was still discussion to be had. He sat.

Aurelia stood up. "Nott has made some good points," she repeated, speaking to the room at large. "And Slytherin House should reconsider our policies in light of them. But let there be no more fighting." She retook her seat and deliberately turned back to her circle of friends, indicating that the show was over.

The crowd started to break up. A few people turned back to their homework and books. Malfoy and his friends slunk over to another couch. Warrington helped Montague to his feet, and they left for the infirmary.

"What did you do at the end there?" Daphne asked, pulling Theo's robe aside to examine the burn on his leg. It didn't look too bad.

"Tell you later," Theo muttered.

"So what would you suggest for some impressively elegant planning?" asked a fifth year named Julian Gamp, sitting down on a nearby couch.

Theo sighed. This was going to be a long night. He was incredibly thankful when Blaise leaned forward.

"Well, naturally it depends on what goal you have in mind," Blaise began. "If we hope to demonstrate the superiority of our understanding of magic, for example, we might consider....."

Theo allowed himself to zone out. He just had to stay sitting up a little while longer.

\---

The rest of the week went well enough. Theo navigated conversations with several upperclassmen, the movers and shakers of Slytherin who needed to feel out a new voice in their midst. Julian Gamp, as it turned out, was even an interesting sort of person.

The bullying that Slytherin was famous for didn't stop, but it did die down over the next few weeks, and Ace and his friends were left alone for the most part. Malfoy still poked at Potter and his friends at every opportunity he got, but at least Malfoy had stopped endangering the entire class with his attempts to blow up Potter's potions, so Theo counted that as a victory.

The arrival of the other schools went smoothly, and someone silenced Malfoy before he could embarrass them too badly in the Great Hall. As the other schools had only brought students who were of age, Theo and his yearmates had little contact with the visitors.

And then Potter's name came out of the Goblet of Fire.

"At least we got to finish the feast properly this time," Blaise commented, collapsing onto a couch in the Slytherin common room. The room was buzzing with conversation, as people discussed Potter's entry and the chances of all four contestants.

Daphne sat next to him, curling to lean her head on his shoulder. "This time?" she asked.

"The troll was also on Halloween," Blaise pointed out. "Also Filch's cat being killed or whatever it was, also Sirius Black getting in and forcing us all to sleep in the Great Hall."

"I hadn't realized it was so consistent," Theo said, sitting down at the other end of the couch so he could angle himself to face them. "Maybe someone cursed our year."

"Might have just been Potter," Blaise replied.

Theo considered that. He didn't have much of an opinion about Potter, but he couldn't help feeling worried anyway. Potter was connected to the Dark Lord, and Theo's father's Mark was getting darker. He did what any Slytherin does when worried: he sought more information.

"Do you think he did it?" Theo asked.

Blaise glanced up. "Potter? No. Potter can't hide his emotions for anything. It's part of why Malfoy snipes at him so much. I saw his face. He didn't put his own name in."

Theo nodded, slowly. He hadn't been quick enough to see Potter's face, but he'd watched him as he left the Great Hall. So, Potter hadn't entered his own name. "Who did then?" he asked.

Blaise waved a lazy hand. "Who knows? Wouldn't put it past Malfoy, actually - it'd be easy enough to nick one of his essays for the signature, and bribe an older student to put it in."

Theo frowned. "Malfoy is too focused on the glory of the Tournament."

"Good point," Blaise agreed. "So, not Malfoy. Still easy enough to do."

Daphne shook her head. "Easy enough to enter Potter as a normal contestant. Getting the Goblet to treat him as an entry for a fourth school would be harder."

"How much harder?" Theo asked.

Daphne shrugged. "Not my area of expertise, but they made a pretty big to-do over the enchantments on that thing."

"Who would know?" A note of urgency had crept into Theo's voice.

Blaise looked over at him, eyes narrowed. "Why do you care?"

Theo forced himself to lean back against the couch. He hadn't told his friends about his father's Mark, and even if he had, this wouldn't be the right place for discussing such matters. "Call it idle curiosity," he finally said.

Blaise pursed his lips but said nothing.

"You could ask Sue Li in Ravenclaw," Daphne suggested. "Her father works with magical contracts, and I know she's interested in enchanting. She's great at runes."

"Maybe I will," Theo decided.

Blaise sent him another narrow-eyed glance.

\---

"What's in it for me?" Li asked.

"What do you want?" Theo asked, rocking back on his heels a bit. This was the part he hadn't been able to anticipate. Li wasn't likely to look into the Goblet for the fun of it, unless it had already caught her attention, and Theo didn't know her well enough to anticipate what she'd want. She was a shy girl, who did well in her classes but didn't put herself forward.

Li thought about it for a minute. "They'll be announcing the Yule Ball in a month or so."

"Or something like it," Theo agreed, nodding. A Yule Ball was a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament, and the requirement for dress robes this year made it obvious that some formal event was planned, even to those who didn't have parents directly involved in the planning.

"My parents will expect me to go," Li said quietly, looking down at her clasped hands, "preferably with someone from an influential family."

"So you want me to take you?" Theo asked.

She nodded.

"Done," Theo said. It could be worse. He'd daydreamed about taking Emily, of course, but she wouldn't stand up to that level of scrutiny, and the pureblood community was too small for her to pass unnoticed. He had to take someone, and at least Li didn't seem to want a boyfriend, just a date to the ball.

Li nodded again. "I'll let you know what I find out," she said, and stepped away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Theo quotes Othello (well, Iago) and Nero Wolfe.
> 
> I hate it when authors don't say what spells do, so...
> 
> Fullonum - actually I can't figure out where I got this incantation (I thought I wrote them all down, too!) but it's obviously soap in the mouth  
> Tiruvantel ar varyuvantel vilya - May the Valar protect you on your path under the sky (based on a phrase in one of Tolkien's elvish languages)  
> Viteriol - vitriol is an old word for sulphuric acid, as well as a modern word meaning cruel and bitter criticism  
> Icurcresco - bad Latin for "liver grow"  
> Agnazzar - Agnazzar's Scorcher is a fire spell from D&D  
> Defenestrio - "defenestrate" is a real word that means "throw out the window", though I'm not sure what the effect would be in a basement room  
> Orthotomus - bad Latin for "straight cut"  
> Magic Missile is also a D&D spell  
> Manipalsie - bad Latin for "paralyze hand"  
> Bidaia - Basque word for "trip", though as I'm looking it up now it looks like it means travel rather than fall down. Oops.  
> Krimpatul - Black Speech (Tolkien) for "bind them"
> 
> All the other spells are canon, I believe


	10. Chapter 10

> Dear Emily,
> 
> I am sorry. I certainly did not mean to be condescending. I think I understand how I might have sounded that way, because the situation really is very complex and I'm still adjusting to this new understanding about people. About you. But I am sorry.
> 
> Diagon Alley was safe, you are right. Many of the shopkeepers are half-bloods, for one thing, so they are more likely to be sympathetic to muggle families. And even the nastiest of purebloods would think twice before doing anything particularly blatant in public, in front of everyone. My fear is for what might happen behind closed doors, or if someone were to seek you out.
> 
> I'm sorry, I'm probably coming across as condescending again. Maybe we can discuss it in person, next time I am home?
> 
> The concert sounds wonderful! Thank you for thinking of me; I'll look into acquiring a Discman. What sort of thing is it?
> 
> I'm afraid I have no idea what algebra is. Daphne says maths is what we call figuring, but we don't do very much of it once we go to Hogwarts. I know enough figuring to manage our accounts, of course, but it seems that muggles learn much more of it.
> 
> The students from the other schools arrive this weekend, so everyone is working to get the school looking cleaner and tidier than usual. Here's hoping we don't get a troll in the school again!
> 
> Yours, as ever,
> 
> Theo

\---

> Dear Theo,
> 
> Thank you for understanding. I'll try to make allowances - I can tell that you're doing your best. I talked it over with Mum and she says maybe it's sort of a class thing? Like, there's upper class, which is the rich people from old families, and lower class, which is the poor people, and middle class, which I guess is the people with like, important jobs and stuff, and if someone is from another country then it's okay for them to be lower class but it's weird for them to be upper class? That would at least make sense. I mean, it's not okay, and it's usually racist, but I know it happens.
> 
> If that's the case, then it sort of makes sense. Mum talked about some things that were in the newspapers when she was younger, and of course we don't want that to happen to us. It's a little weird, thinking we're the minorities now. Is there anything we can do to be safer?
> 
> You are sooooo lucky you get to skip algebra. It's this thing where it's like figuring, but some of the numbers are letters instead, and you have to figure out what numbers the letters are. And sometimes it turns out the letters might be two numbers, which is totally not fair.
> 
> But in Biology we got to use microscopes to look at cells in onions, and I guess that was pretty cool. Not as cool as skipping algebra, though.
> 
> Why was there a troll in the school?
> 
> Emily

\---

> Dear Emily,
> 
> It sounds as if the muggle class structure you outlined is a very close analogue for our society's structure. I'll mention it to Blaise; he'll be interested that muggles have had similar tensions. I'll speak with my father about precautionary measures. It's generally frowned upon to give magical items to muggles, but probably we could find a way that would not be noticed.
> 
> Algebra sounds dreadful. Then again, I have my own share of dreadful homework. Snape wants twenty inches on the effect of cauldron composition on emotional potions, and my brain is full of ingredient interactions which I cannot make sense of. I suspect there's some sort of pattern he wants us to discover, but I have a list of thirty-seven ingredients and how they interact with each metal, and it seems every one is different.
> 
> I think Daphne mentioned microscopes? A device for looking at tiny things?
> 
> Nobody seems to be quite sure about the troll. That was our first year - we were having our Halloween feast and the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor burst in and said there was a troll in the dungeon and then fainted. That was Quirrell, who was totally useless, though possibly not as useless as Lockhart, who we had next year. Anyway, we went to our dormitories (which was a little concerning, since Slytherin dormitories are in the dungeons, but we've got some pretty good duelists, so we figured it would be okay) and the next morning it turned out the troll had smashed one of the upper floor bathrooms and hadn't been in the dungeons at all. There were rumors that Potter and Granger and Weasley had been attacked by it somehow, but nobody knows the details.
> 
> Have I mentioned them? They're three Gryffindors in our year. I don't know them all that well. Harry Potter is sort of famous - he was involved somehow with the end of the war when I was little. Hermione Granger I remember mentioning before. She is a muggleborn, and top of our class, and quite pushy. Ron Weasley is pureblood, but his family is poor and less influential than mine, so he's not as affected by the whole class thing. He's kind of gormless but he plays a decent game of chess. They're best friends, and they get in trouble a lot, but somehow they also get out of trouble a lot. Dumbledore likes them.
> 
> As it happens, they're also involved with the most exciting news of this week, or at least Potter is. Potter is a Triwizard Champion. He shouldn't be - the champions are selected by an ancient magical artefact called the Goblet of Fire, and it's enchanted to choose one champion from each of the three schools. On top of that, the tournament is limited to people who are at least seventeen, so he shouldn't have been able to put his name in at all. But somehow the Goblet of Fire chose him as a fourth champion. Blaise is pretty sure he didn't put his own name in, but he's a champion anyway and it's a mess.
> 
> I hope your Halloween was pleasant, at least.
> 
> Yours, as ever,
> 
> Theo

\---

> Dear Theo,
> 
> I had a great Halloween! One of my classmates had a Halloween party, and Melody and I dressed up as vampires for it. (Are vampires real? I was really surprised that dragons were. Have you ever seen one?) Mostly we ate a ton of candy, but it was fun.
> 
> Last night was Bonfire Night, and that was fun too. We wore masks and went out to the footie field, where they had a bonfire and fireworks, and drank mulled wine and hot cider. I love the smell of a bonfire, don't you? I missed you. It would have been nice to celebrate with you.
> 
> It doesn't seem fair that Potter would be a champion too, just because the magic Goblet said he was. Wouldn't it make more sense to just leave him out? Or just have the Headmasters pick their champions?
> 
> I'm exhausted. I was up late twice this week, though the fireworks were definitely worth it, and they give us slightly less homework but I'm still tired. Algebra is - dare I say it? - sort of starting to make sense, believe it or not. Now we sometimes have to graph things, which means drawing a picture to represent the equation, and somehow that makes slightly more sense than the rest of it did.
> 
> I hope your potions homework is improving.
> 
> Emily

\---

> Dear Emily,
> 
> Vampires are real, though I've never met one. We did discuss them in DADA last year, as they're counted as a Dark Creature. Lupin was a pretty good teacher, even though he was a werewolf.
> 
> I have seen a dragon, actually. There's one in Gringotts, to guard the deeper vaults, so I see it occasionally when we go there on business. It's very old and blind, but still impressive. And my father took me to tour the dragon reserve in Wales when I was eight. I don't remember it all that well, but I sort of remember seeing a dragon flying above us.
> 
> Wizards don't celebrate Bonfire Night. It sounds lovely. What does it commemorate?
> 
> I'm not sure why they are having Potter compete. It's a little worrying, to be honest. It might just be because of tradition, because tradition is very important, but....it's hard to explain, but Potter is very important politically, and I think this is all politics.
> 
> In the meantime, Malfoy won't shut up about it. I finally put him in his place a bit a few weeks ago, after he was bothering Ace (I don't know if Ace mentioned that, but it hardly matters) and of course that brings me under more scrutiny than ever.
> 
> I miss you; it's so difficult to relax when everyone is watching your every move. I can still relax with Blaise and Daphne in our classroom, but even then there's the risk that Blaise will want to start planning our next move. I'm grateful for his acumen, but I wish he'd do it himself. Sadly, his family doesn't have the backing mine does.
> 
> I look at your picture every day, but it's not the same as being with you and making you smile. I wish I could see you. I wish I were home.
> 
> Yours, as ever,
> 
> Theo


	11. Chapter 11

Theo stood near the bottom of the stairs to their dorm rooms, waiting for Blaise and Daphne. Malfoy was in the middle of the common room, busily handing out enchanted "Potter Stinks/Support Cedric Diggory" badges.

Theo frowned. The problem, of course, was that if Malfoy offered him one and he took it, that would be widely viewed as accepting Malfoy's overture of friendship. And then Theo would be expected to talk to the tosser.

On the other hand, if he refused, Malfoy might accuse him of supporting Potter.

"There you are. Sorry I'm late," Blaise said, clapping a hand on Theo's shoulder.

Daphne joined them a minute later, wishing them good morning and discreetly accepting two shimmering vials Blaise handed her.

"What's that?" Theo asked quietly.

Daphne rolled her eyes. Blaise grinned.

"The muggle shimmer lotion is so popular people have been asking where I got it," Blaise whispered, "so naturally I told them Daphne invented it over the summer."

"Which is how I ended up selling it for four Sickles a vial," Daphne added, clearly torn between annoyance and amusement.

Blaise chuckled. "She's making me do the decanting, and I don't blame her. But the money will come in handy."

Theo grinned, shaking his head. They moved towards the exit.

"Want a badge, Nott?" Malfoy asked, holding one out. "Potter Stinks" flashed boldly on his robes.

Theo picked it up and examined it. He handed it back. "I don't know if you've noticed, Malfoy, but Potter will have quite a bit of influence if he ever wakes up and decides to use it. I don't see the point in making an enemy of him for a juvenile insult."

Malfoy looked like he was about to argue, but Theo walked away. If Slytherin House started whispering behind him, let them.

\---

> Dear Theo,
> 
> Gringotts has a dragon? I didn't know that. We only went to the counter, to exchange money. The goblins offered to open a vault for Ace, but my parents said no, or at least not yet. If he opens a vault, will we get to see the dragon?
> 
> Bonfire Night is also called Guy Fawkes Night. Guy Fawkes was a man arrested in the 1600s for trying to blow up Parliament - they found him guarding barrels of gunpowder under the basement. So we light bonfires and burn effigies made of straw and let off fireworks and generally have a wonderful time. You'll have to come someday.
> 
> I'm sorry the politics is stressful. I don't really know what to say about it. We don't have anything like that, unless you count Mandy Weiss not wanting to sit with Mishal Khan because Mishal's brother Amir didn't ask her out.
> 
> Melody says Amir is crushing on Jessie, but Jessie is crushing on Pete Hedgeway so she's not interested. Amir is nice, but so is Pete, so I guess it's up to Jessie to decide what she wants. Shelby wanted me to go on a date with her brother Enzo, so I was glad I had those photos of you to make her back off. Enzo's okay, but I don't particularly want to date him. I hope it's okay I used your photo as a "boyfriend card."
> 
> Emily

\---

> Dear Emily,
> 
> I'm glad my photo could defend your honor, even though I was not present to do so myself. I wouldn't want you going on a date with somebody else.
> 
> The dragons are quite deep inside Gringotts, only used for certain vaults, so Ace wouldn't have one guarding his vault. Maybe this summer we could all visit the dragon reserve together, or even go to the one in Romania, which is much larger.
> 
> That's interesting about Guy Fawkes Night. Wizards and muggles still had some contact in the 1600s, but it was decreasing rapidly, and the Statute of Secrecy went into effect at the end of the century. Wizards of the time probably knew about it but just weren't interested.
> 
> We have some of that sort of thing too. Blaise and Daphne are sort of dating, as you may have noticed. Draco and Pansy have been dating for ages, though half the time they seem to just annoy each other. Vince has a crush on Hannah Abbott in Hufflepuff, actually, but he's trying to hide it. Hannah's a half-blood, for one thing, and for another most Slytherins think Hufflepuffs are kind of dumb. They're not - the other champion, Cedric Diggory, is a Hufflepuff, and it's not like Vince's brain is anything to boast of - but he's embarrassed anyway. I'm not sure if Greg is interested in anyone. If he is, he's better at hiding it than Vince is. I don't know as much about the Hufflepuff social life, but I think Hannah is dating Ernie MacMillan.
> 
> I got a bit of time to sketch this week, so I'm enclosing a drawing of the Night-Blooming Morning Glories we worked with this week in Herbology. All I had on hand were my quill and a couple of colors of ink, but I think it came out well.
> 
> Yours, as ever,
> 
> Theo

\---

The day after the First Task, a nervous-looking first year approached Theo in the common room after dinner. "Could....could I tell you something?" she asked.

Theo frowned down at her, trying to remember her name. He'd seen her around the common room, usually with her twin sister, both of them with their dark hair in braids. But he didn't know her name. "Of course," he replied. "Is it something you want to tell just me, or could my friends Blaise and Daphne hear it also?"

She relaxed a little when he didn't brush her off. "They can hear," she said.

Theo guided her over to the couch they'd claimed, and put up a charm to keep them from being overheard. "What is it?" he asked.

When she didn't respond immediately, Blaise leaned forward. "You're one of the Carrow twins, right? I'm sorry, I don't know how to tell you apart yet."

A small smile flitted across her face. "You can't. We're identical. I'm Hestia."

Blaise smiled kindly at her. "Hello Hestia. I think you probably know us, but I'm Blaise, and that's Daphne, and that's Theo."

Hestia nodded. She took a deep breath. "Yeah. I know. It's.....it's probably not important. But...it was strange, is all, and I thought..." she trailed off, wringing her hands.

Blaise was still smiling at her. "That's okay. Just tell us what's bothering you, and if it's not important we don't have to worry about it anymore. We can sort it out together."

Hestia nodded again. "It's.....Professor Moody talked to me last night."

Daphne nodded encouragingly, even though none of them could see what made this noteworthy.

Hestia took a deep breath and started over. "I went to the library to work on my Transfiguration essay after the Task yesterday. When I finished, I was walking back, and Professor Moody was in the hall. He looked....I think maybe he was a little drunk? I don't know. Anyway, he saw me and said hello, and I said hello, and he said that I should be happy, because my aunt and uncle will be free someday soon. I didn't know what to say, so I just sort of agreed with him and said I had to go."

All three of the others were watching Hestia intently now.

Blaise drummed his fingers against his thigh, his brows drawing together. "Carrow....are your aunt and uncle the Alecto and Amycus Carrow who are in Azkaban?"

Hestia nodded. "My father is Astraeus Carrow, their brother. But we don't want them to get out! Father says they were terrible bullies as children, and then they killed our brother when he was a baby. Mother and Father won't talk about it, but something terrible happened." She shuddered a little.

"And you're certain Moody said they'd be getting out, and that that was a good thing?" Theo asked.

Hestia nodded harder than ever. "That's why I had to tell someone! But I didn't know who, and I thought maybe you would know?"

"It's certainly bizarre," Blaise murmured.

Theo rested his chin on his palm, thinking hard. Moody was a famous Death Eater hunter. The odds were good that he had been the one to put the Carrows in Azkaban in the first place. Something was seriously wrong.

And his father's Mark was getting darker.

"You did right to come to us," he told Hestia. "We need to talk about it now, and there's some research we might need to do. Let us know if anything else happens, okay?"

Hestia nodded, seeming calmer now, and moved away to join her year-mates at one of the tables.

"Let's head out to somewhere more private," Theo said, standing up. "We need to talk."

\---

"So Moody is acting strangely," Blaise said as they sat down in the classroom Daphne used for brewing. "And I suppose we should add Potter's being a champion to the list of strange things as well, since he probably didn't do it."

"I still can't believe he out-flew a dragon," Daphne murmured.

Blaise chuckled. "No wonder Malfoy's always pissed at him."

"There's another worrying thing," Theo said, gripping his hands in his lap. This was private, but the weird circumstances were adding up, and it was time to share what he knew. "My father's Dark Mark is getting darker."

"That's the Dark Lord's mark, right?" Daphne asked.

Theo nodded. "My father says that when the Dark Lord was defeated, the marks faded until they were almost invisible. It reappeared this summer and it's been getting darker. But he says it did that once before, during our first year, and then it went away, so it's possible that it doesn't mean anything."

"I very much doubt that it means nothing," Daphne pointed out. "Did he say how long it lasted?"

Theo hummed, thinking back. "He said it got darker and lighter several times over the course of the year, and then one night a few days before we came home, it hurt in the middle of the night and then it disappeared again."

Blaise sat up. "A few days before the end of the year. Could you find out which day, exactly?"

Theo shrugged. "Probably. I'll write and ask. Why?"

Blaise got to his feet and paced across the room. "It might just be a coincidence. But Potter and the Dark Lord are linked already...A few days before the end of our first year is when Potter and his friends went through the Gauntlet on the third floor."

"I think I remember the Gauntlet," Daphne said. "Dumbledore told us to stay away from that hallway our first night, and then I sort of remember some of the upper years talking about it later. But I don't remember Potter going through it."

"You weren't as interested in keeping track of those things back then," Blaise pointed out. "I'd have to check my diary, but I remember that the upper years who got through it said there was the cerberus, and a giant chess game, and a troll, and a bunch of potions that Professor Snape contributed. The potions and the troll stumped them for a while. Eventually a group got through in early December, but they said the room at the end was empty."

"Okay, that all sounds familiar," Theo agreed. "But what does it have to do with Potter?"

Blaise spread his hands. "It might be unrelated. But a few days before the end of the year, Potter and Weasley wound up in the infirmary during the night. Granger wouldn't say anything, but when Weasley got out he said they'd been down there, and Dumbledore more or less confirmed it by giving him fifty points for a game of chess."

"Oh, I remember _that_ ," Theo said, disgusted.

Blaise chuckled. "Yes, I think we all remember that. In any case, he gave Potter sixty points for something vague, so we don't really know what happened. But Potter was in the infirmary for several days, so it was something big."

"Didn't Professor Quirrell also disappear right around then?" Daphne asked.

"He did, but no one ever knew if that was related or not. Dumbledore just announced he was gone."

"Well, I should write to my father," Theo decided. "We should probably try to keep an eye on Moody, if we can do it without any risk."

"He's pretty paranoid," Blaise pointed out.

Theo sighed. "He is, and he doesn't like me. If either of you have any bright ideas, feel free to let the rest of us know." He stood up and pulled out some parchment and a quill. "And if my father's burning Mark and Potter's mysterious adventure do coincide, I think we might have to talk to Potter."

\---

> ...and so, Father, I am writing to ask you to consult your diary and determine, if possible, on which night the Dark Mark burned and vanished. If it was indeed the same night as Potter's unknown adventure, I must consider that a very significant correspondence.
> 
> While we have in the past favored discretion over action, I am inclined to believe that speaking to Potter on this matter may be the wisest course of action. Naturally it is not without risk. If it were discovered that I spoke with him, the social consequences would be challenging to navigate. More than that, any attempt to conspire against the Dark Lord carries obvious and very serious risks, and (if I understand correctly) even a casual investigation into his doings is not likely to meet with his favor. Despite that, when weighed against the manifold injuries to ourselves likely to result from the Dark Lord's return to power, I believe it may yet be sensible to do what we can to avert that return, if it can be done without undue risk.
> 
> My friends send you their greetings. I have not spoken to them of your opinion of the Dark Lord or our various plans and activities, but naturally they are not fools and will have guessed some part of the truth.
> 
> I look forward to returning home in December, and to seeing you again. I wish we could discuss this in person; I have missed our conversations.
> 
> Yours, etc
> 
> Theophanes Nott

\---

> Theophanes,
> 
> I can confirm that the night my mark burned matches the night of Mr. Potter's adventure, and I agree that this is unlikely to be a coincidence. We cannot be certain that his experience has significant bearing on the current state of affairs, but I am inclined to agree that speaking to him may be warranted.
> 
> I will add a further note of warning: do what you can to ensure that Mr. Potter and his friends do not speak to Dumbledore about this matter. I would prefer that none of us be involved in his machinations.
> 
> Like you, I find Miss Carrow's report deeply concerning. I have not directly interacted with Alastor Moody very often, but I have been acquainted with him for years, and the behavior reported by Miss Carrow is simply impossible. Assuming she is not merely lying (which seems unlikely, from your report), I must conclude that the man she met is an imposter. Such behavior could be produced (for a short time, at least) by an Imperius or another form of compulsion magic, but Moody is well able to throw off such magics, as he demonstrated at the beginning of the year. If he is indeed an imposter, your task becomes easier, as the imposter is likely less paranoid and less careful than the real Moody.
> 
> The remaining question, however, is whether the Moody teaching you is the same imposter. It is possible that Miss Carrow encountered someone who was merely posing as Moody for the evening (as we learned last year, Hogwarts is disappointingly easy to get in and out of without detection, and the defenses against intrusion are weakened further this year by the visitors from other schools) and the real Moody is present the rest of the time. This seems relatively unlikely (Miss Carrow would be an odd target for this sort of plot, and a temporary imposter would avoid interacting with students unnecessarily) but the possibility should be considered.
> 
> On the other hand, if you are being taught by an imposter, I am thoroughly astonished at Dumbledore. Moody is one of his oldest friends, and Dumbledore would be well able to detect such a fraud. It is possible that he has deliberately chosen to allow the imposter to remain, just as he seems to have allowed a wholly unprepared fourth year to face a dragon. I do wonder what the old man is playing at.
> 
> You are an intelligent wizard, Theophanes, and I trust you will do as you see fit. Stay safe, Theophanes.
> 
> Thaddeus Nott

\---

"So we need to talk to Potter," Theo concluded.

Blaise sighed. "Won't be easy. I doubt he'll meet you alone, and if he brings his friends we'll have Weasley scowling at us the entire time."

"I thought he and Weasley were on the outs?" Theo asked. "They argued over the Tournament, didn't they?"

Daphne rolled her eyes. "Weasley has been forgiven. Merlin knows why."

"Gryffindors," Blaise said, sounding disgusted.

"Well, if we have to deal with Weasley, we will," Theo decided. "Talking to Potter is important. I'll write him a letter - that's polite, and not as risky as attempting to speak with him in person - and let him suggest a place. Hopefully he'll believe me."

"Granger and I have partnered in Arithmancy a couple of times, and managed to be reasonably friendly. I can tell her it's coming, if you like," Daphne offered.

\---

> Dear Theo,
> 
> It seems like magical people have an awful lot of prejudices. There's the blood thing, and then there's the house thing, which Ace said was decided by a magical hat. I confess it all seems very silly to me. I don't know how you get anything done.
> 
> You also seem to let magical hats and cups and things make a lot of important decisions. Are Magic 8-Balls real?
> 
> I'm sorry, I think I'm being cranky today. I wish you were here to explain it to me better.
> 
> A trip to a dragon reserve sounds wonderful! And I'm guessing wizards have faster ways to travel to Europe than we do. Your father showed Mum and Dad how he can apparate, and Mum and Dad are so jealous.
> 
> We're reading Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in English class. That was written before the Statute of Secrecy - do wizards read it? Do you even have English class? Ace doesn't. I don't think Dad is happy that Hogwarts doesn't have most of the normal classes.
> 
> Anyway, our teacher is making us memorize the first part of the prologue in the original Middle English. At first I was totally overwhelmed by the idea, but we've read it out loud a couple of times and I kind of like the way it sounds? It's kind of pretty. Anyway, I used a blank tape to record myself reading it so I can listen to it and memorize it that way.
> 
> Emily

\---

> Dear Emily,
> 
> Well, the first Task is past. The champions had to get a golden egg from a dragon, which is frankly insane. Diggory is in the infirmary, though he'll be fine. He got burned pretty badly, though. Potter made it through unharmed, surprisingly enough. He summoned his broomstick and out-flew the dragon, which was some pretty impressive flying. He's always been good on a broomstick.
> 
> All in all, quite an exciting day. I wish you could have been here. I did take some photos, and I'll enclose them once they're developed.
> 
> I suppose we do have lots of prejudices, though, to be fair, the house one and the blood one are somewhat related, in that muggleborns are more likely to go to Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. I don't know if that's bad, exactly. Sometimes it's just that your background shapes who you are.
> 
> I gather that you are annoyed about the Sorting Hat and the Goblet of Fire, but I don't really understand why. The people who created them are usually the ones who made the decision in the first place, and this way they retain the right to make that decision.
> 
> We don't have Magic 8-Balls. Is that a muggle thing?
> 
> Since writing the above, something rather odd has come up. One of the younger students came across something that indicates that there may be a plot to free certain people who are currently in Azkaban (the wizard prison) for crimes against muggles and muggleborns and quite a lot of other people. I am worried. If they get out, they might present a real danger to you and your family.
> 
> Blaise and Daphne and I are going to work on finding out more. And it's not an immediate threat, so hopefully we have time to figure out what's going on. I'm consulting my father, also. It's just worrying.
> 
> Be safe, Emily.
> 
> Yours, as ever,
> 
> Theo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not actually clear exactly when the stone was placed in the mirror where Harry found it. It's possible that Dumbledore put it in when he put everything else in, and then I guess brought up the mirror for Harry to find at Christmas. It's also possible that it wasn't put there until after Harry saw the mirror. It's even possible that this was a protective measure on Dumbledore's part: giving the students a chance to explore the tempting corridor and then putting the stone in place once they were bored with it. One wonders what he did with the stone while the mirror was not in place, but that's an issue regardless.


	12. Chapter 12

Potter and his friends were already waiting for them when Theo, Daphne, and Blaise entered the empty classroom three doors down from the Charms room at the appointed time. Desks and chairs had been pushed together to make a rough table with three seats on each side. As expected, Weasley was scowling, Granger was smiling nervously, and Potter looked more than a little lost.

"Thank you for meeting me," Theo said, sitting down. "Would you mind if we used a dictation quill to record our conversation? Naturally we would each get a copy at the end, and that will keep important details from being forgotten."

Potter glanced at each of his friends, neither of whom responded, and then shrugged. "Sure, I guess." He pulled out a chair and sat, and his friends followed his lead. "You said you wanted information?"

"I said I would trade information. I know two things which may be useful to you. In return, I would like to know what happened at the end of first year, and whether it involved the Dark Lord."

"Death Eater scum," Weasley muttered.

Theo pushed the emotion from the accusation to the back of his mind. "I am not a Death Eater, Weasley, nor do I support their cause," he said calmly.

Weasley sneered. "Only Death Eaters call him the Dark Lord."

Theo spread his hands. "Well, what would you have me call him? I'm not so gauche as to say his name, and calling him 'You Know Who' is ridiculous."

"I wish we knew his actual name," Daphne said thoughtfully.

"Tom Riddle," Theo and Potter replied in unison. They looked at each other in surprise, and Potter grinned.

"Thomas Marvolo Riddle," Potter continued. "He told me he hates that name, because he was named after his muggle father."

"When did he tell you that?" Theo asked, astonished.

"The Dark Lord is a half blood?" Blaise jumped in.

Potter was smiling properly now. "Yeah, he is. That was end of second year - he was the one opening the Chamber of Secrets."

Blaise looked puzzled now. "Isn't there a Special Services to the School award that was given to a Thomas Riddle?"

Theo couldn't help grinning as he mentally replayed his own conversation with his father over the summer.

Potter nodded. "Same guy. He was opening the Chamber fifty years ago, and killed Moaning Myrtle, and then he got the award for framing Hagrid for it."

"Ohhhh." Blaise leaned back, integrating this information with what he already knew.

Theo spoke up. "Well, now that we've gotten naming conventions out of the way, we would still like to know what happened first year. If there's time, I think we would also like to know what happened second year."

Granger chimed in with a smile of her own. "Might as well tell you about third year too and have done with it."

Weasley was scowling again. "I still don't see why we should tell them anything. They're still Slytherins."

Theo nodded. "We are Slytherins. But we're not Death Eaters. We've been arguing against the bullying of muggleborns this year. We're good friends with Ace Harris, a muggleborn first year in your house, and with his older sister Emily, who is a muggle. My father even went fishing with their father."

Weasley still looked suspicious, but Granger nodded. "Lily Johnson passed me a couple of tips for getting my robes straight, and she said you guys gave them to her. I had wondered about that."

Theo smiled. "Yes, Ace brought his new friends to meet me on the train. We asked him to pretend he'd just met us, by the way, to protect his family. We met them this summer."

"Okay," Potter cut in. "I'll tell you what you want to know. You tell me your information first."

Theo glanced at Blaise, who shrugged.

Theo took a deep breath. "The first piece of information is that my father - who did join the Death Eaters when he was young, though he regrets that decision - says his Dark Mark is getting darker. The Mark was placed on the Death Eaters, on their forearm, and...well, I think it connected them to the Dark- to Riddle, somehow, but I don't know the details. It faded after Riddle was defeated. During our first year it got dark again, and it got darker and lighter several times until one night it burned and then vanished. That night was the same night you three went through the traps on the third-floor corridor, and we all know you're connected to Riddle. So. I want to know what happened."

Potter looked confused. "Dumbledore said everyone knew what happened."

Theo stared blankly at him. So did all the others, including Granger and Weasley.

"When did he say that?" Granger asked.

"Just after I woke up. He said what happened was a secret, so naturally the whole school knew."

"That's.....not even possible, Harry," Granger pointed out. "You were the only person who was there, and you had just woken up."

Potter looked more confused. "Oh."

"I can confirm that Dumbledore didn't say anything about what happened," Theo offered. "We knew the three of you had been down there, since Weasley told people bits of it and it matched the reports from the older students who had been down there earlier in the year, but we don't know how you got past the troll or the potion puzzle, and we don't know what was in the empty room at the end."

Potter was frowning, but Granger put in, "The troll was unconscious when we got there, and I solved the logic puzzle. We knew by that point, mostly from something that Hagrid let slip, that the traps were a way to guard a Philosopher's Stone. I'm afraid we thought Professor Snape was after it, but it was actually Professor Quirrell, who was working for....for Riddle."

"Quirrell was working for Riddle?" Theo felt his eyebrows rise. "I did not see that coming."

Granger nodded. "Quirrell helped him drink unicorn blood during the year, which is probably why your father's Mark got darker several times."

"That makes sense," Theo murmured. Next to him, Daphne scribbled down a couple of notes.

Potter swallowed and looked up. "Riddle was actually possessing Quirrell by the time I got to the room at the end. It wasn't empty then - Dumbledore put the mirror in it after Christmas. We....I guess we talked, and then we fought, and when I touched him....well, he burned."

"I'm afraid I need more detail than that, Potter," Theo said gently. "First of all, what mirror?"

"The Mirror of Erised," Potter replied. "It's a mirror that shows your deepest desires."

"That sort of thing can be dangerous," Blaise murmured.

Potter nodded. "Professor Dumbledore said people have wasted away from looking at it."

"Okay," Theo said. The mirror was interesting, but probably not especially relevant. "You said Riddle was possessing Quirrell. Can you give us more details about that?"

"You remember how Quirrell wore that turban?" Potter asked, looking slightly queasy. "He took it off, and there was another face on the back of his head. It was....it was pretty awful. It was white, with red eyes."

Daphne leaned forward. "He could talk to you?"

Potter nodded. "He said...he said he was a shell, less than a ghost, but he could still find people to share their bodies and souls with him."

"Thanks," Daphne said, and leaned back, scribbling more notes.

"Could he control Quirrell's body directly? Or did he have to tell Quirrell what to do?" Theo asked.

Potter thought about it for a moment. "He told Quirrell what to do."

"Okay." Theo sat quietly, trying to think if there was anything else that he could usefully ask. Not seeing anything, he moved on to the next topic. "You said your touch burned him?"

Potter squirmed in his seat. "He tried to kill me," he explained softly. "And when he touched me, it hurt - my scar felt like it was splitting open - but his hands were all blistered. So I grabbed him."

Theo's brows drew together. "Any idea why?"

Potter shifted again. "Professor Dumbledore said it had to do with my mother's love."

"It probably has to do with whatever happened when Riddle was defeated thirteen years ago," Daphne said softly. "And I doubt anyone understands that."

"So he's a wraith now," Theo murmured. "Probably possessing someone...."

"Actually I think he might have sort of a body now," Potter said.

Theo raised one eyebrow. "Oh?"

"I had a weird dream this summer," Potter explained. "And they might be just dreams, but when I woke up my scar was hurting. And I remembered the dream clearly; it wasn't like a normal dream that fades away as soon as you wake up."

Potter hesitated, so Theo nodded.

Potter continued. "In the dream there was a big old house, and there was a muggle creeping in, and Riddle was there, and Pettigrew, and a snake called Nagini. I couldn't really see Riddle, but he was a tiny figure in an armchair, and he killed the muggle himself, so I think he probably had an actual body. And then he told Pettigrew to milk Nagini to make his potion."

There was silence.

Granger spoke up. "We should probably mention that Sirius Black was innocent and Peter Pettigrew framed him. He was living as a rat for over a decade, and this spring he left to try to find Riddle." She paused, then added, "Harry was going to live with Sirius, but then Minister Fudge wouldn't listen to us and Sirius had to go on the run until Professor Dumbledore can get him a trial."

Theo felt like banging his head on the table. Did Potter and his friends never tell anyone anything?

Theo took a deep breath. "I...I'd like to hear that story too, actually, but maybe not tonight. Potter, if you're open to some friendly advice, the next time you get interviewed by _The Prophet_ , you might mention that you wonder why you can't find the records of Lord Black's trial. For now, could you tell us about the Chamber of Secrets."

"That was Riddle, too," Potter replied. "Except this was the younger version of Riddle: he'd somehow preserved himself in a diary. He said he was a memory. He possessed-" he broke off suddenly. Judging by the way her body shifted, Granger had kicked him. Potter continued, "Well, he possessed a student through the diary and forced that student to open the chamber and leave the messages. The student almost died."

"We can leave the student's name out of it," Theo agreed, though he noticed that Weasley was looking exceptionally worried. "What was the monster?"

"A basilisk," Granger replied. "It was using the pipes to get around. Its gaze is normally lethal, but everyone saw it indirectly, either in a reflection or through something, so they got petrified instead."

Theo raised his eyebrows. "What happened to the basilisk?"

"It's dead. I sort of killed it when Fawkes, Professor Dumbledore's phoenix, brought me the Sorting Hat and I got the Sword of Gryffindor from it," Harry replied.

"The Sword of Gryffindor," Blaise repeated flatly, "from the Sorting Hat."

Potter shrugged.

"A couple of questions about that version of Riddle," Daphne said. "Can you tell me more about the diary?"

"I used it once," Potter replied. "If you wrote in it, your writing disappeared and he wrote back. Mr....someone later said the student should have known not to trust it, because you shouldn't trust something that can think for itself if you don't know where it keeps its brain."

"That's ridiculous," Blaise objected. "A talking diary wouldn't be much different than a portrait or a mirror. Actually, I'm surprised no one is making a talking diary, come to think of it. Might be good money there."

"I believe he was pretty upset," Granger put in.

Potter nodded. "Anyway, Tom also used it to pull me into his memory - one of the spaces in the calendar opened like a window, and when I put my eye up to it, I fell into a memory, like I was actually following him around while it happened but nobody could see me."

Blaise let out a low whistle, and Daphne took more notes.

"Do you know how it possessed the student?"

Harry shifted in his chair. "Well, by the time I got down to the Chamber of Secrets, he kind of had a body, but it was still misty? He could hold my wand though, he got it from me, and he looked more opaque over time. The student he possessed was unconscious. Tom said....Tom said the student had poured out her soul into the diary, and her soul was 'just what he needed' and over time he was able to, like, send his soul back to her? Something like that. He recited some of her diary entries; it was really creepy."

Daphne looked up. "Was she okay? Possession like that can be very damaging. Honestly, I'm surprised she survived."

Potter shrugged. "She seemed okay. Just upset. I used a fang of the basilisk to stab the diary, and then Tom went away and she woke up again."

"Smart move," Daphne commented.

Potter shrugged again. "Fawkes helped a lot."

"In the Chamber of Secrets, you said Tom could pick up your wand. Could he cast magic?" Daphne asked.

Potter wrinkled his forehead. "I don't think he tried. He just called the basilisk. So maybe not."

"What happened to the basilisk corpse?" Blaise asked.

"I don't know. It might still be down there."

Theo nodded. "I'm sure we have a lot more questions, but you've been more than generous and it doesn't sound like Tom and the diary are related to what's happening now. I should tell you the other thing I wanted to tell you."

Theo recounted Hestia's story about Moody and the Carrows, and summarized his father's conclusions.

"I told you no responsible teacher would demonstrate the Unforgivables in class!" Granger cried.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, Hermione, it was a cool lesson!"

It looked like Granger was prepared to argue the point, but thankfully Potter spoke up. "We've got to figure out who he is, and that won't be easy. He's got all sorts of detectors in his office to alert him if anyone is there, so we can't just hide. Though the Sneakoscope is broken," he added thoughtfully, "but maybe it was humming constantly because he's an imposter."

"I wish we had a button camera, like in that movie we watched," Theo commented. "I bet he wouldn't notice that."

Potter was staring at him oddly. "You really did make friends with a muggle, didn't you?"

Theo rolled his eyes.

Daphne looked thoughtful. "We could probably make one, if we had a small enough mirror to enchant."

"That would be a pretty advanced runic array," Hermione replied, biting her lip. "I think we could manage it...."

"If we drafted it, we could ask Sue Li to look it over," Daphne suggested. "She'd probably be willing."

Hermione nodded, and began pulling out parchment. Daphne stood up and pulled her chair around to sit next to Hermione.

Potter looked at Theo. "While they're working....what you said about Sirius. Do you think I could really get him a trial?"

Blaise raised one eyebrow. "Does a centaur hunt in the woods? Of course you could get him a trial. You're the Boy Who Lived!"

Daphne turned to give them a significant look, so Theo stood up. "Let's move over there to give the geniuses space to work."

Potter and Weasley followed Theo and Blaise to the far corner, where they pulled chairs into a small circle.

"So what exactly happened?" Theo asked. "I know Black is said to have secretly supported Riddle, and I know he's supposed to have killed Pettigrew and a bunch of muggles."

Potter took a deep breath. "My parents knew Riddle was coming for them. Or for me, I'm not sure. They hid using the Fidelius Charm. Sirius was supposed to be the Secret Keeper, but at the last minute he persuaded them to switch, because no one would suspect Pettigrew. They were all friends, you know - my dad, and Sirius, and Pettigrew, and Professor Lupin who taught us last year."

Blaise nodded. "So Pettigrew was the one secretly supporting Riddle, and he told Riddle the secret. What about the muggles?"

Potter spread his hands. "Sirius went after Pettigrew, and cornered him on a muggle street somewhere. Pettigrew yelled something, and cut off his own finger, and threw the blasting curse that killed the muggles. In the confusion, he turned into a rat and slipped away."

"A rat?" Theo asked, puzzled.

"He's an animagus."

Weasley was squirming again, but Theo ignored it. "How did Black end up in Azkaban?"

"I'm not sure. I guess Sirius sort of confessed, because he felt guilty for suggesting the switch? But he didn't have a trial."

Blaise drummed his fingers on his knee. "This really shouldn't be difficult to get started. The question is whether you want to use the private method, or the public method."

"What do you mean?" Potter asked.

Blaise leaned forward. "You could start by writing directly to the people responsible. Fudge would probably jump at the chance to do you a favor. We'd want to look up who was responsible for the arrest - I think Bagnold was Minister then - and figure out the best way to spin it."

Potter grimaced. "Fudge didn't believe us the night we met Sirius. And I don't like him."

Blaise spread his hands. "Then use the public method. Agree to an interview, drop a bunch of leading questions, let the public outcry do the work."

Potter frowned. "Can't say that sounds any better," he muttered.

Weasley, who had been looking bored for several minutes, got up and wandered back towards Granger and Daphne.

Theo sighed. "Well, you pretty much have to do one or the other. If you decide to write the letters, Blaise and I can help you draft them. I think the letters might be better than the interview, anyway - public perception can be hard to predict. The interview can be your backup plan."

Suddenly Weasley spoke up to Granger and Daphne. "You should use Isa instead of Othila, it's a better choice for stability."

Granger glared at him. "Ron! This is advanced runes! You know nothing about this! You-"

"Hang on, Granger," Daphne cut in, sounding amused. "I think he might be right."

"What!" Granger bent her head over the notes Daphne had pulled out. "I....You're right. Ron! How did you know that?"

Weasley shrugged. "There was an article about it in _Which Broomstick_ a few months ago."

"But you always tell me not to be a swot when I talk about runes!" Granger looked entirely flummoxed. By this point, the conversation had captured the attention of Harry, Theo and Blaise. Blaise's hand over his mouth was unsuccessful at masking his obvious laughter.

Weasley shrugged again. "I don't know from runes. But I do know broomsticks."

"Okay, Weasley," Daphne said, pushing their notes towards him. She was clearly amused as well. "What else can you tell me?"

Weasley turned red, but he leaned over the diagram. "What's this one?" he asked, pointing.

"That's Eiwaz, Thurisaz, Peorth, Dagaz, Peorth again, and Othila, which can be replaced with Isa," Daphne replied, pointing at them each in turn.

"I don't know all of those, but I'm pretty sure you should move these two in and this one down," Weasley replied, pointing. "This is an offensive strategy, after all, and that's a stronger offensive formation."

Granger stared at him. Weasley looked at her, shrugged, and looked down at his feet.

Daphne finished her scribbled analysis. "Yeah, I think he's right again," she decided.

Hermione turned on her friend. "Ronald Weasley! Tonight I am giving you my runes textbook and a copy of my notes and you are going to study something useful for once!" Even Potter was chuckling at this point.

Weasley took a step back. "Oh, come on, Hermione," he started.

"I don't think that would be a very helpful approach, actually," Daphne said wryly. "I think Weasley is probably like my sister. She's kind of dumb when it comes to books and lectures, but she does really well if we just mess around and make things together."

Granger stopped. "Well, what would you suggest?" she asked.

Daphne shrugged. "He doesn't seem to need much theory, and endlessly practicing drawing the runes was always filler anyway. Let's find him a basic reference and see how he does."

Granger looked unconvinced.

"I wouldn't mind trying that way," Weasley offered, looking earnestly at her.

Granger sighed. "Okay Ron. We'll try it. Come sit and I'll draw out the Elder Futhark runes for you. Harry, if you don't stop laughing, you're next!"

Harry sat up as straight as if he'd been hit with _petrificus totalus_ , causing Blaise and Theo to burst into open laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to affirm that people with learning differences are *not* dumb! But, the wizarding world being what it is, Daphne probably grew up thinking they were.
> 
> Also I should plug The One Where Harry Goes To Beaubatons, a fic I wrote with my brother, my sister, and my daughter(!) which we are in the process of posting.


	13. Chapter 13

Father,

The discussion with Potter was remarkably productive. I am attaching a copy of the transcript. The salient points are that Potter confronted and defeated the Dark Lord's wraith at the end of our first year, and that he has reason to believe that Peter Pettigrew is currently assisting the Dark Lord.

Pettigrew, of course, changes a number of calculations. Blaise checked the school records last night and determined that Pettigrew was fairly skilled in Potions and moderately so at Transfiguration. He had few political connections, even before he lived as a rat for ten years, but the Dark Lord may well be making use of what skills he does have.

Daphne says that snake venom is used in a number of restorative potions, but none of them can be used indefinitely.

(I apologize for the rather muddled nature of this report. I am still rather overwhelmed by the day's revelations, but I felt that reporting our discoveries immediately should take priority over elegant communication.)

In the meantime, we will continue to investigate Moody. Daphne says that Weasley proved quite valuable, once they taught him the runes not used in broomstick enchanting, and they have sent their preliminary plan to a Ravenclaw, Sue Li, for polishing.

Blaise and I are helping Potter draft a letter to Auror Scrimgeour about Lord Black's case. It should be easy enough to manage. Scrimgeour is probably much easier to manipulate than Fudge, given his ambitions, and is better placed to manage the matter. I suggested that we also send Minister Fudge a placating letter, but Potter dislikes Fudge and Blaise finds it more amusing this way.

I will continue to act with circumspection to the best of my ability.

Yours, etc

Theophanes Nott

\---

Dear Head Auror Scrimgeour,

Greetings.

I am writing to request your assistance in the matter of Lord Sirius Black. My friends and I (Ron Weasley, son of Department Head Arthur Weasley, and Hermione Granger, top of our class at Hogwarts) briefly encountered Lord Black last June. Lord Black informed us that he was innocent and had in fact been framed by Peter Pettigrew. During that encounter, Lord Black successfully captured Pettigrew, and Pettigrew admitted to me and my friends that he had in fact betrayed my parents and killed twenty-two muggles in order to fake his own death and frame Lord Black.

Unfortunately, Pettigrew escaped shortly thereafter, as he is an unregistered rat animagus, something he doubtless learned from his contacts among the followers of He Who Must Not Be Named. When I tried to tell Minister Fudge what had happened, he refused to listen, declaring that I must be confunded. (As I am capable of throwing off the Imperius, as recently demonstrated in class by our professor Alastor Moody, I am inclined to resent this slur on my reputation as the Boy Who Lived, Triwizard Champion, and Head of the House of Potter, but for now let that pass.)

Lord Black additionally reported that he was jailed without a trial, and indeed no one I have consulted remembers a trial. I request that a preliminary hearing in this matter be scheduled at the earliest reasonable opportunity, with the intention of swiftly moving to a trial should it be determined that one has not previously occurred. It seems to me that this ought to be a simple matter, were it not for the gross incompetence of certain members of the Ministry.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Yours, etc

Harry Potter

Boy Who Lived  
Head of the House of Potter  
Triwizard Tournament Champion

\---

Theo was rather surprised when his Head of House informed him the next morning that his father would meet him at the Hogwarts gates at noon. A parent was allowed to withdraw a student from school occasionally, of course, but Thaddeus had never done so before.

However, at noon Theo checked that his robes were tidy, left his book bag in his trunk, and made his way across the grounds to the gates. Professor Snape was already there, probably hoping to see if he could figure out why Thaddeus Nott wanted to see his son.

"Good day, Father, Professor, " Theo said, politely nodding to both adults.

"There you are, Theophanes. Good day, Professor Snape," Thaddeus replied, stepping back and motioning for Theo to join him on the other side of the gate.

Professor Snape nodded and strode away. Once he was out of sight, Thaddeus reached out to take Theo's arm and apparated them both to their home.

After taking a moment to recover and catch their breath, Theo found that he and his father were staring at each other, not certain what to say. "It is good to see you, Father," he ventured.

Thaddeus smiled slightly and stepped forward, firmly grasping Theo's shoulders. "Yes. It is very good to see you, Theo."

Then the moment passed and they became more natural. "I guess you wanted to discuss my letter?" Theo asked.

Thaddeus made his way to the dining room, which was laid for lunch. "I do indeed. The information Dumbledore has been hiding is most concerning."

"I'm not sure how much Dumbledore knows. Potter may not have told him about the dreams, for example."

Thaddeus waved a hand. "Possible, but doubtful. Dumbledore has his ways of knowing things, and a young man wholly dependent on him must necessarily be transparent as well. I suppose it is possible that he does not know Moody is an imposter, though to be honest I doubt it, but I take it as given that Dumbledore knows everything Potter knows. The question is, what are we to do about it?"

Theo thought for a moment, while he took a bite of his smoked rabbit pâté. "It seems to me there are two things which may affect us. The imposter has not as yet presented any particular threat, though he is considerably easier to watch, and would probably be easier to expose. The second is the Dark Lord, who is a much greater threat, but we do not know where he is. Of course, the imposter may be working with the Dark Lord, which would simplify matters."

"Agreed, though I would add that the innocence of Lord Black is likely to affect us eventually, as it will doubtless have an influence on the political and economic structure of the community. But that is a relatively minor matter." Thaddeus took a sip of his wine. "One other point, which you may have overlooked: Miss Carrow met the imposter shortly after the first task, and said he looked inebriated. It is possible, though not definite, that he was inebriated because of the first task - possibly he was the one who entered Potter in the first place, and was pleased with Potter's performance."

Theo raised his eyebrows. "I had not even considered that. You are correct, of course." Theo leaned back in his chair, considering. "The Dark Lord seems to be substantially weakened, if Potter's dream may be relied on. If we could find him, it might be relatively easy to defeat him."

Slowly, Thaddeus shook his head. "I am afraid it is not so simple. Potter's testimony is that the Dark Lord is primarily a wraith at this point in time. He may be anchored by some sort of possession or homunculus, but destroying that body will in all likelihood only release the wraith. It would weaken him considerably, but not kill him."

Theo's eyes widened. "So he can't be killed?" An inescapable enemy was a terrifying thought.

Thaddeus raised one hand. "I did not say that, only that he cannot be killed by conventional means. It may be possible to find and undo whatever he did to become a wraith. Alternatively, we may find a way to confine a wraith, or fasten him to one being which will drag him into death. But there is no denying that this is a dangerous course."

Theo slumped a little. "And I've already committed us, haven't I?"

"You have certainly committed us to hiding, but we had intended to do that in any case. Even now, we might escape scrutiny if we claimed that I ordered you to cease once I realized you were investigating the Dark Lord's activity."

"That would certainly be the wisest action," Theo agreed.

"Perhaps. And yet, perhaps not. We have enough information now to consider alternatives, and if we were to succeed in destroying the Dark Lord, that would be an undeniable advantage. It may do no harm to consider it."

Theo hummed. "What about the false Moody?"

Thaddeus raised his eyebrows. "What of him? As you said, he is, as far as we know, an entirely different problem. If you realize your teacher is an imposter and watch him carefully to uncover his disguise, no one would be more surprised than you to discover his connection with the Dark Lord!"

Theo smirked. "Good point."

Thaddeus became solemn again. "You must understand, Theo, that we will not escape the Dark Lord's displeasure on the strength of that argument. The Dark Lord was frequently irrational. But it is likely to lessen the punishment he delivers, and at the end of the day, there is no worse outcome than the resurrection of the Dark Lord. I believe it may yet be worth doing."

Theo nodded solemnly.

Thaddeus leaned back and rang for the next course. "In the meantime, I found an excuse to speak to Head Auror Scrimgeour this morning. You'll be pleased to know that he is looking remarkably excited, so I believe your letters have had the desired effect. In the course of our conversation I happened to mention my fond memories of Orion Black and dinners with his family, so I expect to be selected for the trial. That will be entertaining."

\---

After lunch, Thaddeus showed Theo a new acquisition: a muggle phone.

"You managed it!" Theo said, lifting it reverently out of the protective cedar box. It seemed to be attached by a stiff black cord to a larger black box, which Theo picked up, puzzled. It was much heavier than he expected.

"Ian and Julie helped quite a bit," Thaddeus explained, reaching out to disconnect the cord. "It is what the muggles call a cell phone. The larger box is a battery, which provides the electricity needed. It is one of two, actually: the other sits in the Harris' garage, plugged in and recharging, and Flippy switches them periodically."

Theo lowered the battery back into the box, and examined the cell phone. "And it works?"

"I have both made and received calls using it," Thaddeus replied, with justifiable pride. "The box protects it from bursts of active magic, and as long as I do not cast any spells while the box is open, it remains functional. I confess I did destroy the first one: I forgot and cast a Sonorus when it was difficult to hear. We later determined I had been holding the cell phone wrong."

"What happened?" Theo asked.

"It exploded. I don't believe I've made such a mess since Potions class in my second year."

Theo chuckled, then asked, "Will you show me how to use it?"

"Of course." Thaddeus picked up a scrap of parchment that was tucked against the side of the cedar box, and showed Theo how to press the buttons that corresponded with the symbols and numbers on the parchment.

Theo finished pressing the buttons. The square on the phone changed, and a tiny purring sound, just on the edge of hearing, came from the phone. Thaddeus lifted Theo's hand, still holding the phone, and positioned it against his ear.

The phone made a louder sound, and then clicked. "Harris residence," Theo heard Julie Harris's voice say.

Startled, Theo jumped, fumbling the phone. It fell to the floor by his boots.

His father chuckled and lifted the phone to his own ear. "Good afternoon, Julie," he said into the phone.

Thaddeus listened as the phone made more soft noises, then spoke. "As it happens, Theo is home for the afternoon. I was demonstrating the use of the phone to him. If you would not mind, may I put him on again?" He listened for another moment, then passed the phone back to Theo.

Theo pressed the phone to his ear again.

"Theo?" came Julie's voice.

Theo swallowed. "Hello, Mrs. Harris."

"Theo! It's so good to hear your voice! What brings you home?"

Theo hesitated. He couldn't very well explain the entire sequence of events over the muggle telephone. "I...my father withdrew me today. We had some business to discuss."

"When do you need to be back? Can you come for dinner?" Julie asked.

Theo lowered the phone, looking up at his father. Thaddeus raised his eyebrows. "What did she say?" he asked softly.

"She's invited us to dinner, if I can stay that long," Theo whispered back.

Thaddeus spread his hands. "I have no objection. Make your choice."

Theo raised the phone to his face again. "We'd be delighted to come to dinner."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to my husband, who definitely earned his pay this chapter - I hadn't written any of the letters between Theo and Emily as I went along, so when I got to the phone call and realized I needed them, I wrote a dozen letters right there in the middle of the scene and then left them there when I resumed the scene, so my husband had to figure out where they went in the previous chapters. He is very nice to me :)


	14. Chapter 14

"Theo!" Emily called, running out to the pavement to hug him.

Theo was a little surprised by her greeting, but he hugged her back readily enough. "Emily," he murmured softly.

Emily pulled back, and they smiled at each other for a moment. Thaddeus had continued past them and up the walk, and they turned when they heard him open the door and greet Ian and Julie.

"Good evening, Mr. Harris, Mrs. Harris," Theo said, coming towards the house.

Julie waved them off. "Dinner won't be here for twenty minutes or so. Why don't you two take a walk?"

"Thank you," Theo replied, and rejoined Emily on the pavement. The door closed behind them, and they were alone.

"I'm glad to see you," Theo said, after they had walked in silence for a minute.

Emily's quick smile lit up her face. "I'm glad to see you too. Letters are definitely not the same."

Theo chuckled. "Not really." They walked quietly for another minute. "Is there anything we still need to discuss?" he asked eventually.

"I think we're good?" Emily said hesitantly. "There was the pureblood thing, but I feel like we figured that out."

"Right. And I'm a little condescending sometimes, but I'm working on it."

Emily laughed a little. "It's okay. I'm a little cranky sometimes."

"Yeah."

After a minute, Theo broke the silence again. "How's that thing you're memorizing going? The one in Middle English?"

"Canterbury Tales? I know most of it now, I think."

"Can I hear a little?"

Emily cleared her throat self-consciously, then began,

" _Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,_  
 _The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,_  
 _And bathed every veyne in swich licóur_  
 _Of which vertú engendred is the flour;_  
 _Whan_....I don't remember the next bit."

"You're right; it is pretty. What are the tales about?" Theo asked.

Emily shrugged. "There's a lot of them, and they're all, like, political and stuff. There's one where a woman tricked a guy into snogging her arse, so that was funny."

Theo laughed.

"I guess magic people don't read them?" Emily asked.

"No, I've never heard of them," Theo replied. "We do learn some Middle English as children, though, so we can understand old spellbooks better. I read Garamond the Magnificent in Middle English with my tutor."

"What's that about?"

"Oh, Garamond the Magnificent was a wizard who fought during the goblin rebellions. He was the one to breach the defenses around one of the primary goblin caves, and the story claims he struck down a thousand goblins that day."

"Huh." Emily didn't seem to have anything to say in reply to that.

"So what is a Magic 8-Ball?" Theo asked after a minute.

Emily laughed. "Oh, it's a toy. It's....do muggles play pool or snooker? Or billiards?"

Theo shook his head.

"Okay, so those are all games played by using a stick to hit balls and push them around on a special table. And the balls have different colors and numbers, and in some places the 8-ball somehow got to be a lucky charm. It's just a superstition," Emily explained.

"Okay, sure." Theo smiled.

"So at some point, some company came out with a toy that looks like an 8-ball, and you're supposed to ask it a question and shake it, and an answer floats to the surface, something like 'signs point to yes' or 'don't count on it.'"

"That's clever," Theo said. "How do muggles do that sort of enchanting?"

Emily giggled. "It's not enchanted, Theo! It's just....there's, like, a wheel or something inside, and when you shake it it moves around. It only gives a dozen or so answers."

"Oh." Theo stopped and thought about this. "That's strange. What if it's wrong?"

Emily was watching him carefully. "It's wrong all the time. That's why it's just a toy."

"Oh." Theo thought about it some more. "Muggles are strange."

Emily giggled again. "Wizards are strange, Theo. Would you really expect it to be right?"

Theo waved his hands and started walking again. "Well, enchanted objects can't tell the future or anything, except for a few that might be just legends, but lots of enchanted objects give general advice. My mirror tells me if I forgot to comb my hair or if my robe doesn't match my vest, and Greg has a planner that reminds him to do his homework. And portraits are bloody useful sometimes."

"Ace mentioned that the portraits talk and move, but I don't think he's tried talking to them," Emily replied.

"Well, it depends on the portrait and what memories were put into it. Many of them are mad, but I know quite a few that can give useful information or advice. And they can often run brief errands - if my father needs to contact me quickly, the portrait of Thelonious Nott can carry a message from his frame at home to his frame in Hogwarts, and from there to one of the portraits in my Common Room."

"Ace says he gives a password to a portrait to get into his Common Room," Emily commented.

"You're not actually supposed to tell me that," Theo objected. "But yes, portraits can also be used as guardians."

"Okay, so what about that Sorting Hat?" Emily asked thoughtfully. "Is that like a portrait?"

"I don't know much about the Sorting Hat, actually, but I'm familiar with that class of enchanted object. That sort of thing is usually a much deeper enchantment than a portrait, and it represents the wisdom and priorities of the person who enchanted it. Not everyone can make them; it takes an immense amount of power and skill."

Emily walked in thoughtful silence. "So it's not like a _thing_ making the decision, it's like it's the actual person still there."

"Yes, exactly."

"But what if they're wrong, like the tournament cup and your friend Potter?" Emily asked.

Theo spread his hands. "I don't know, really. I'm pretty sure Dumbledore could have let Potter out of it. Sue Li said there isn't any binding magic in the Goblet itself. But, to be fair, if Dumbledore makes a bad decision, there's not much anyone can do about it. He's powerful, and he's got a lot of influence."

"Hmmm." Emily kicked at a small stone that was loose on the pavement. "I guess it could be worse."

Theo smiled. "It could." On an impulse, he extended his arm to her. She wrapped her hand around his elbow and smiled back.

"Magic people are still strange, though."

"I suppose that's fair."

\---

"So, may I ask what brings Theo home for the day?" Julie asked as they sat down to plates of Indian takeaway.

Theo surveyed his plate. While the muggle food he'd had so far had been tasty enough, this food was entirely unfamiliar, and he felt rather overwhelmed by the smells of the spices assaulting his senses.

"Does it have to do with that thing you mentioned?" Emily asked, "about the bad people who might get out?"

"Bad people?" Ian echoed.

Theo froze. He and his father hadn't intended to discuss the blood conflict with Emily and her family in any detail. He'd been so worried when he wrote to Emily that he'd forgotten to watch his words.

Thaddeus set his glass down. "I have told you that there is a certain amount of tension over blood status in the wizarding community, and that it has escalated to violence on occasion. Most of the people who were guilty of violence against the muggleborns and their kin have been in prison for over ten years."

Julie nodded, and Ian muttered, "Glad to hear it."

"Indeed." Thaddeus paused to take another sip of his cider. "I expect your son has mentioned Alastor Moody, who teaches him Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

Julie and Ian exchanged glances. "He has," Ian said, smiling a little. "And frankly the man sounds more than a little...eccentric."

Thaddeus chuckled. "Yes, I'm afraid that is his reputation in our society as well. Dumbledore has for some time had difficulties with staffing that position, you understand. However, regardless of his eccentricities, he is known to be a fanatical Dark Magic hunter, and half the criminals currently in prison were caught and convicted through his efforts."

"Ace did say he seems to know the subject, at least," Julie offered.

"Exactly. And yet, we have a rather inexplicable report of his behavior. Theo?" Thaddeus prompted.

Theo cleared his throat and described what Hestia Carrow had told him the previous week.

"What were Miss Carrow's aunt and uncle convicted of?" Ian asked quietly.

Theo bit his lip, but answered. "They were suspected of a number of crimes, but they were convicted for the murders of halfblood Thomas McMahon and his family," he said quietly, leaving out the torture inflicted on the McMahons, along with half a dozen other convictions.

Julie looked worried. "But - why would Professor Moody want them to be free?"

"That's the question, isn't it?" Thaddeus replied. "And that's what Theo and I have been discussing today. It is possible that the man teaching at Hogwarts is not Alastor Moody at all, but an imposter. There are several ways that may be accomplished."

"But why not just speak to the Headmaster?" Julie asked.

Thaddeus spread his hands. "Dumbledore has become increasingly erratic in recent years, I am afraid, and as Moody is one of his oldest friends, it is quite possible he already knows."

Julie did not look reassured by this.

"We're working on ways of figuring out who he really is," Theo offered. "Daphne and one of our other classmates are figuring out how to make a spy camera, like they use in the movies, and then we think we'll be able to figure out what his plan is. Once we know more, we can decide what to do. Father has contacts at the Ministry if we need official help."

Ian nodded. "In the meantime, is there anything we need to do to keep ourselves safe?" he asked quietly.

Theo and Thaddeus exchanged glances. "There should be no immediate danger," said Thaddeus slowly, "and we would be informed if there were a breakout from Azkaban. If you do need to go into Diagon Alley, it might be wise to let me know. And it might not hurt to get emergency portkeys for you all."

"Portkeys?" Julie asked.

"A method of magical transportation," Thaddeus explained. "A spell is cast on an object, and when the spell is triggered it pulls whoever is touching it to a designated location. They're not particularly easy to make, but I will arrange it."

Ian snorted. "You 'know a guy'?"

Theo and Thaddeus were puzzled, but Julie chuckled, so they let it pass.

"Ace should have a portkey as well, Father," Theo pointed out.

"Indeed, and I will acquire one for him. Portkeys don't normally work within Hogwarts, but if he were to find himself in trouble while outside the castle grounds, it would be a useful means of escape."

\---

"You missed all the excitement, Theo," Blaise told Theo when he returned to Hogwarts that night.

Theo's stomach clenched, but he forced his voice to stay calm. "Oh?"

Blaise grinned at him. "Scrimgeour himself showed up with a couple of Aurors. They swanned into the Great Hall and demanded to speak with Potter."

Theo relaxed. "Glad to hear it."

"Dumbledore was entirely nonplussed," Blaise said reminiscently. "It was glorious."

"I'm so glad you're enjoying yourself," Theo drawled.

Daphne sighed. "I hope it gets results quickly. Granger and Weasley and I were supposed to meet after lunch, but the Aurors kept them for ages."

"How is Weasley doing?" Theo asked.

"Surprisingly well, actually. Turns out he's fairly intelligent when he's interested, and as long as he can draw parallels to Quidditch or chess or both, he stays interested. It's slowly driving Granger batty, which is always entertaining. We sent our two best results to Li, and then we'll have to collect materials for the enchanting."

"What do you need?"

Daphne rummaged in her book bag, pulled out a copy of their design, and passed it over. "It needs a full moon, so if we can't get everything ready by the 18th, we'll need to wait another month. The basic infusion potions are simple enough, and I can add the ingredients I need to my usual Witchin Kitchen order, but we'll need a very small glass lens or mirror, and that's harder to come by. I've sent for catalogs from Hocus Highlands Supplies and Cramshaws, but it might be rather pricey."

"Money we've got." Theo shrugged. Then a thought struck him. "What about the little lens in the muggle disposable cameras? Would that work?"

Daphne's eyes lit up. "It might! Can you get it out intact?"

"I've got a couple of empty ones. I'll give it a shot tomorrow."

"How about you?" Blaise asked. "Any developments?"

"Nothing of importance," Theo replied, stretching out in his chair. "Father is going to get emergency portkeys for Ace and Emily and their parents."

"Good idea. I wonder why Dumbledore doesn't do that for all of them. Too expensive, I suppose."

"And registered portkeys have to record their destinations, which rather ruins the purpose of an emergency portkey," Theo pointed out. "Father is going to have them made in Morocco, where the magical government doesn't monitor travel as closely. They'll also be more stable that way, since we intend to use the riad as the destination."

\---

> SIRIUS BLACK INNOCENT
> 
> In a shocking turn of events, Sirius Black, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, was cleared of all charges in a special judiciary meeting last night.
> 
> According to Head Auror Rufus Scrimgeour, concerns about Lord Black's conviction were first raised by none other than the Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter. Mr. Potter has figured prominently in these pages before, not just as the Boy-Who-Lived, but also as the unexpected fourth Triwizard Tournament Champion, in which role he recently outflew an angry dragon with masterful skill.
> 
> Mr. Potter claimed to have met both Lord Black and Peter Pettigrew last summer, at which time it was explained that Pettigrew had framed Lord Black for his crimes before faking his own death. Pettigrew, who became a rat animagus in service of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, has been hiding ever since. When Mr. Potter attempted to report Pettigrew's betrayal to the proper authorities, Minister Fudge rejected his testimony out of hand, claiming that Mr. Potter and his friends were confunded. No attempt was made to establish Mr. Potter's state, and Mr. Potter has since proven himself to be a strong-minded young man, not likely to be affected by a confundus charm.
> 
> "Well, how was I supposed to know that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had followers who were unregistered Animagi?" said Minister Fudge, when asked for comment. "We will certainly be adding new anti-animagus charms to Azkaban and key wizarding locations," he declared.
> 
> Mr. Potter's testimony was supported by his friends, pureblood Ron Weasley, son of Ministry Department Head Arthur Weasley, and muggleborn Hermione Granger, recently rumored to be dating the Boy-Who-Lived.
> 
> "When Mr. Potter raised concerns about irregularities in the previous administration, we moved immediately to correct Lord Black's record," Auror Scrimgeour told the _Prophet_. "That such a prominent wizard should be condemned to Azkaban without a proper trial horrified everyone at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
> 
> Lord Black was further supported by the testimony of retired Head Auror Alastor Moody, who blamed Department Head Barty Crouch for Lord Black's precipitate incarceration. "Bartemius Crouch never cared a bit about guilt or innocence, who deserved Azkaban and who didn't," reported Moody with ill-concealed frustration. "As long as he has a reputation as the one who put Dark Wizards in jail, that's all he cared about."
> 
> Lord Black was tried _in absentia_ at four o'clock yesterday, before a special tribunal including Head of Magical Law Enforcement Madam Amelia Bones and Wizengamot Members Lord Thaddeus Nott and Ernest Hawkworth. He was cleared of all charges and is urged to come forward and be reinstated into his proper rights and honors.
> 
> Mr. Crouch was not available for comment.

"Well, that went smoothly," Theo murmured to Blaise.

"It did. And the fallout for Fudge should be entertaining," Blaise replied, scanning a letter that had arrived. "My mother is pleased. I suggested she keep an eye out for Ministry news, and consequently she was able to spend most of the night firecalling her friends with the news and discovering who planned to make a play for the newly-eligible Lord Black. Ianthe Hawkworth has a bit of a head start, of course, but Primrose Parkinson and Freja Rowle are both in the running, and Isolde Schwartz is seriously considering a visit to London."

Theo smiled and shook his head. "I rather doubt he's sane enough to be interested in matrimony quite yet."

"I doubt that will stop them," Blaise replied. He stood up and placed the letter in his book bag. "Ready for Potions?"

As they made their way to Potions, Granger's voice drifted down the hall to them. "I know he's innocent, Ron, but this trial was a farce! He was tried _in absentia_ and only because Harry is famous! This is no basis for a justice system!"

Blaise and Theo exchanged glances and shook their heads. Gryffindors.

\---

Granger was still getting quite a bit of mail from various people with opinions about her relationship with Potter as portrayed in the _Daily Prophet_ , so Theo didn't pay attention when she received a letter a few days later. The first sign he had was seeing Weasley cry out "Bloody hell!" and vault over his table to sit next to Sue Li at the Ravenclaw table, gesticulating madly and waving a piece of parchment around.

To Theo's surprise, Li blushed deeply, but then seemed to rally, grabbing the parchment from Weasley and pointing to it. Weasley listened, objected, and listened again, and soon their heads were both bent over the spread out parchment.

"I did not see that coming," Blaise murmured beside him.

Theo glanced over at him. "You think something will come of it?"

Blaise shrugged. "Perhaps just good runes work. Perhaps more. Her family has drive and his has enough status to be useful, so it might work."

Granger by this point had also made her way over to the Ravenclaw table, and was leaning over Weasley's shoulder to join the discussion. Theo looked for Potter, and found him still at the Gryffindor table, staring hard at Theo.

As soon as their eyes met, Potter jerked his head towards the door, obviously indicating a desire to speak to Theo. Theo nodded as subtly as possible, then took a last sip of his pumpkin juice.

"We really should give Potter some tips on not being bloody obvious," he muttered to Blaise.

Blaise rolled his eyes. "Gryffindors."

A few minutes later, Blaise and Theo made their way over to the door Potter had indicated, leaving Daphne to finish her breakfast in peace. Potter was waiting for them in the hall.

Potter approached them, but Blaise rolled his eyes again and led the way to a nearby classroom. The three of them entered and put up a couple of quick privacy charms.

"The hallway isn't much more private than the Great Hall, Potter," Blaise pointed out. "And while we're on the subject, if you want to talk to us, send us a note or something, don't wave your head around for the whole school to see."

"Oh." Potter looked nonplussed. "I didn't think this had to be private."

"It makes our lives easier if our collaboration is not widely known, and if the Dark Lord does come back, it might save our lives," Theo pointed out.

"Oh," Potter said again. He looked uncomfortable. "Well, anyway, I just wanted to thank you. The Aurors that came the other day were very helpful, and they said Moody said that Crouch insisted on throwing Sirius into Azkaban without a trial and Sirius was innocent all along!"

Blaise smirked. "Told you it would work."

"Hold on," Theo said, frowning, "They interviewed the false Moody, didn't they?"

Potter shrugged. "Yeah, I don't know why he said that either. Maybe he thinks Sirius is working for - for Riddle?"

"I doubt it. Riddle must know he wasn't, and you said Pettigrew is with him now. If Pettigrew is alive, Black isn't guilty," Theo pointed out.

"Perhaps we'll understand when we find out who the fake Moody really is," suggested Blaise.

"Yeah, any news about that? Ron and Hermione were discussing the camera plan with Sue when we left," said Potter.

Theo shrugged. "Not really. Daphne has ordered the necessary supplies, and I was able to get a lens from a muggle disposable camera, which is both cheaper and easier than finding a supplier."

Potter nodded. "Hermione says the enchanting needs to be done on the full moon, which isn't until the 18th."

Theo nodded.

"And after that we just have to deal with Riddle," Potter finished.

"Which may be more difficult than we thought," Theo said.

Potter looked puzzled. "Why? We know where he is, and he's weaker than usual."

Theo grabbed a chair and sat down. "Because the Dark Lord - Riddle - currently exists primarily as a wraith. If we kill his current body, that will release the wraith, not destroy it."

"Oh." Potter scowled, but pulled up his own chair. "Professor Dumbledore said that if we keep stopping him from getting a body, he might never come back."

Blaise snorted. "Sure, if you want to be looking over your shoulder all your life."

"Killing the body would be better than allowing him to rise to power, but we'd prefer to aim higher than that," Theo agreed.

"Okay, sure. How do we do that?" Potter asked.

Theo exchanged glances with Blaise. "We don't know," Theo admitted.

Potter glared at them. "What do you mean, you don't know?"

Blaise sighed. "It means we don't know. If we research the topic, we may find a way."

Potter nodded. "That's fair. I'll tell Hermione."

Internally, Theo thanked Merlin that managing Potter wasn't his job. "You do that. You might also....are you in touch with Lord Black?"

"Sirius is...nearby," Potter allowed.

"Right, well, he's the last of his family, so he's probably the heir of the house, and the Blacks have quite a library of books concerning the Dark Arts. If he needs something to do while he adjusts to his newfound freedom, he might consider looking into it," Theo suggested.

Potter blinked. "I didn't know that. I'll tell him."

\---

Dear Theo,

Thank you very much for the beautiful silver bracelet! I totally love it. Mr. Nott says you intended it to be a Christmas present for me, and apologized for giving it early, but he said it was the best choice for my new portkey. I can't really wear a bracelet every day, so he put a shrinking charm on it so I can wear it on a chain as well.

I hope you are staying safe too. I know you and your father said there wasn't any danger right now, but I have a feeling it's worse than you've told us. Mum and Dad are wondering if we should try sending Ace to that other school next year, but none of us speak much French, and at a different school we wouldn't have you and Daphne and Blaise to help us.

My life is pretty normal, which seems funny after hearing about yours. In English we're done Canterbury Tales and we've moved on to A Separate Peace. I don't like it very much; it's a sad story. But it reminds me of you sometimes, since it's about boys at a boarding school and they have to decide if they want to fight in a war, and I guess that's a little like you. One of the boys goes to war and comes back mad from shell-shock. It's a little scary.

The teacher loves it, though. He keeps going on about how it's all wonderful and glorious and not just sad. And there are nice parts, I guess, but the sad parts just spoil them. So I sort of pay attention, but I also spend a lot of time doodling imaginary winter dresses. I wish I could sew.

Do wizards have magic sewing spells? Maybe it's easier to sew with magic.

Melody has a boyfriend now. His name is Paul and he wears black leather cuffs and plays guitar and writes super depressing songs. I like him okay, but it feels like Melody spends all her time with him now. It's frustrating, but Mum says it happens a lot and I should just give her time. In the meantime I've been hanging out with Jessie more. She's been showing me a little bit of computer coding, which is really cool. Well, it's cool when it works. When it doesn't work you have to pick through and figure out what you did wrong, and that takes forever.

Oh, magic people don't have computers, do they? It's hard to explain. It's a machine that can do a number of things, like hold and print words, and make pictures, and play games. My dad has one, so I can show you when you visit over winter break. You have to promise not to do magic near it, though.

Yours,

Emily

\---

Dear Emily,

You are very welcome! I expect my father told you that I found it in the marketplace near the riad we bought in Marrakesh. The man who sold it to me insisted it was originally made for a royal princess, but I'm pretty sure he was lying.

We are staying as safe as we can. This part is all research and planning, anyway, so there's no real risk involved.

I've heard that wizards who fight too much can go mad over time. My father says that's what happened to Professor Moody - the real one, that is. The false one is imitating him, of course, though I wonder if he is mad too. He couldn't possibly imitate madness so well if he weren't a little mad himself.

At any rate, I'd no idea it happened to muggles. What do muggles do about it?

I've never learned any sewing charms, but I'm sure they exist. Flippy knows how to mend and alter clothes, which I assume counts as sewing, but house-elf magic is different from our magic.

Last year one of the upper year girls tried to transfigure a dress for a Hogsmeade date, and it reverted when she and her boyfriend were in the middle of Honeydukes, the candy store. It had originally been several sizes too small for her, so it tore badly, and she was quite embarrassed. Fortunately for her, her boyfriend had the presence of mind to conjure her a blanket, but she still had to put up with days of teasing.

I don't at all understand what you mean by coding and computers, but I look forward to a demonstration when I see you next.

I look forward to seeing you again.

Yours, as ever,

Theo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Emily's unnamed English teacher and Melody's boyfriend Paul are both based on real people I knew in high school, and her English curriculum is based on mine from tenth grade. Her friendships and hobbies are not.


	15. Chapter 15

"Can I have a word, Nott?"

Theo turned. Weasley had caught up to him in the hall.

"Of course."

Weasley led the way to a nearby empty classroom, and Theo casually put up a privacy charm. Weasley seemed oddly tense, with his shoulders braced and his hands fisted.

"I asked Sue to go to the Yule Ball with me," Weasley blurted out.

Theo raised his eyebrow. "Sue Li?"

"Yeah. She says she's going with you."

"She is," Theo said slowly, "but that's a purely business arrangement. If she prefers to go with you, I have no objection to the change."

"Yes, well.…" Weasley trailed off, scuffing his feet against the floor. "I'm pretty sure she wants to go with me, but she already told her parents she was going with you, and...."

"…and your family is not, for the moment, as powerful as mine," Theo finished for him.

"Yeah." Weasley peered at him. "What d'you mean, 'for the moment'?"

Theo spread his hands. "Only that the Weasley name has been influential in the past, and likely will be again. You're working to bring down the - to bring down Riddle, and that will likely prove useful if you pay attention and use it wisely. Not to mention that your older brothers seem to be accomplishing quite a lot, especially with only one properly matched wand between them, and I suspect they'll go far. "

Weasley scowled and folded his arms. "What do you know about their wands?"

"Only what I've heard from the rumors, which is that they swap their wands back and forth in class, and one wand performs substantially better for them."

Weasley looked at his feet, kicking one booted toe idly against a crack in the floor. "That's Uncle Gideon's wand. They say Uncle Fabian's would probably have worked well too, but it wasn't recovered. They have our Great-Grandmother's wand, but it's not as good a fit."

Theo nodded. "The point is, your lack of suitability is probably a temporary problem. In the meantime...." Theo sighed, running a hand through his hair. "In the meantime, if Li wants me to escort her to the Yule Ball and pose for a couple of photos for her parents and then hand her over to you, I will. But you will owe me one."

"Yeah." Weasley took a deep breath, then held out his hand. "Yeah, Nott, we'll do that. Thanks."

\---

"So you'll go stag?" Blaise asked.

Theo shrugged. "Not like I particularly want to go with anyone here anyway."

Blaise looked at him shrewdly. "You'd bring Emily if you could, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah."

Daphne straightened up from the ingredients she was grinding. "That's a shame. You could.....mmm, no, maybe not."

"No," Theo agreed. "I considered it - having her polyjuice as someone else, having Weasley pretend she was a squib cousin or something - but it wouldn't be safe. I can't be seen dating a squib right now, for one thing, and any unfamiliar girl I brought would be subjected to a thorough cross-examination by Pansy and the others. So, no."

"It could be worse, I suppose," Blaise mused. He looked up. "Does Weasley have anything decent to wear, do you think?"

Theo sighed. Probably not. And, favor or no favor, it would look strange if his "date" deserted him for a wizard in the sort of robes Weasley might turn up in. "Blast. Probably not."

"Potter's always a mess, too. And I doubt they'll let one of the girls fix them up," Blaise said, considering possibilities. "They need a house elf."

"Don't they have a house elf?" Daphne asked.

Theo and Blaise looked at her.

Daphne waved a hand. "That...Dobby, I think his name was. The house elf Potter freed from the Malfoys. I don't know whether he's bound himself to Potter or not, but he certainly seems loyal enough."

Theo stretched out in his chair. "Good point, Daphne. I'll drop Potter a note suggesting it. Now can we find something else to talk about?"

\---

On December 18th, they all met in the fourth-floor west corridor. Daphne led the way into a large unused room.

"What is this place?" Potter asked, looking around. The room was mostly empty, with a variety of geometric shapes etched into the floor. The only furniture was a series of cabinets along one wall, and a series of curtained-off enclosures along the other. The room was unusually warm, despite the lack of a fireplace.

"It's a ritual room. Hogwarts doesn't teach ritual magic much anymore, but the rooms are still here. I had a house elf clean this one for us," Daphne replied. She set her book bag down and pulled out a hand mirror, which she set on the ground, and then two large potion vials.

"I'm glad they got the warming charms working," Blaise commented.

"What do you need us to do?" Theo asked.

Daphne uncapped one vial and began pouring the potion carefully along a cross-shaped knot on the floor. "I'm going to get this prepped. Give the lens to Granger and then go bathe and get changed."

Granger was pulling a silver bowl out of her book bag. Theo dug the muggle camera lens from his book bag, handed it to Granger, and then herded Potter and Weasley towards the curtains.

"What is all this? What are we doing?" Potter was asking.

Theo sighed and explained. "We have to power the runic array and use it to enchant the lens. It's delicate work, so before we start we all have to dip in water and wear ritual robes. Or we could go naked, but that seems less appealing."

Behind each curtain was a narrow pool, already filled with cool water. Blaise joined them, handing out the white cotton robes he'd collected from the cabinet.

Each of them took a turn dipping and changing, and by the time they were done Granger and Daphne were ready to go. The knot diagram was smoothly lined in grounding potion, and the silver bowl was placed in the center, filled with focusing potion.

"All set?" Theo asked Daphne.

Daphne nodded. "Granger and I checked each other's work, so I'm reasonably certain it's as perfect as it can get."

Theo stepped aside and let Daphne pass.

"So the runes are on the bowl?" he heard Potter ask Granger.

Granger sighed in exasperation. "Yes, Harry, I've explained this already! The matrix manifold is too extensive for the lens, at least for our capabilities, so we use the bowl as a sympathetic anchor to enchant the lens."

"Right," Potter replied.

"I think you've lost them again, Granger," Daphne called from behind her curtain.

Granger pressed her lips together, but after a minute she tried again. "The runes are too complicated to put on the lens directly. If we put them on the bowl, and power them there, we can transfer the enchantment to the lens afterwards."

"Oh, okay," Potter replied, looking less lost this time.

"It's twelve runes, and each of us can probably power four without any problem, so I figure Granger and Weasley and I will do it. But if we get tired we'll stop early and one of you lot will need to step in," Daphne explained.

"Actually I'm pretty sure Harry could power the whole array himself, if he had to, but I'd like to do part and I'm sure you would too. Still, he should probably step in if the draw is more than we expect," Granger interjected.

Potter ducked his head.

"Really?" Daphne asked.

Granger shrugged. "I've run some rough calculations, and Harry has a lot of power when he needs it."

"Interesting. Anyway, once the runes are all powered, everyone who did the powering points their wands at the lens and says _omnino sigantes_ , and it should work," Daphne finished.

Weasley looked around the room. "Where is the lens, though?"

Granger sighed. "In the bowl, Ron. It's under the focusing potion."

"Oh. Okay."

That settled, Granger ducked into the curtained area to bathe and change, and came out looking much smaller, with her dripping curls straggling down her back.

Daphne stepped carefully forward and touched her wand to the first three runes, saying their names aloud as she did so. She started to do the fourth, then stopped. "I'm pretty sure I could do four, but I can feel the drain now and there's plenty of us. We'll do three each," she decided.

Granger stepped forward and charged the next three runes, then motioned Weasley forward. Once he was done, Potter did one, then glanced over at Theo and Blaise.

"Do you want to do one?" he offered.

Theo shrugged and came forward to charge the next rune, and Blaise did the last.

They all pointed their wands at the bowl and said " _omnino sigantes_ ," and a burst of light hit the bowl, sank in, and then flared brightly, causing all of them to shield their eyes. When they could see again, the potion in the bowl was gone, and the bowl no longer had runes etched around the edge. The lens sat innocently in the empty bowl, but when Daphne picked it up they could see the light sparkling off the tiny runes now engraved on it.

"Is that it?" Weasley asked.

Daphne tapped it with her wand, and it became a dull gray. She carried it over to the pile of book bags and set the lens on the mirror she had left on the floor. She tapped the lens with her wand again, then put her wand away and picked up both the lens and the mirror. "See for yourself."

Weasley took the lens, and Daphne held up the mirror. They could all see the pinkish color of Weasley's hand in the mirror, and then, as Weasley held up the lens, swinging views of the rest of the room.

"Bloody hell!" Weasley exclaimed, and his words were echoed softly from the mirror.

"It's perfect!" said Granger, grinning from ear to ear.

"So how do we get it on Moody?" Potter asked, reaching out for the lens.

"Switching spell should do it. Just switch it with one of his buttons in class," Theo suggested.

Granger nodded. "It'll be safer if we do a different switching at the same time, so if he notices the spell he'll think it's just a prank. I'll do the lens, maybe, and Harry or Ron will use a switching spell to pass notes at the same time. That's common enough."

"Good plan," Theo said, slightly surprised to hear a good strategy coming from Granger. He'd never expected her to be a strategic thinker. "It'll be safer if you lot do it - Moody is already suspicious of us Slytherins."

\---

Dear Father,

I am able to report several successes. The spy camera device was successfully created, and Granger was able to plant it on the false Professor Moody without detection. (I believe he did take a few points from Potter and Weasley for passing notes in class, but no one minds that.)

Potter having located (with the assistance of his elf) an empty room with a large mirror, we met there tonight to see what results we would get. Daphne brought her dictation quill, and I brought a camera.

The false Moody's first action, after locking and sealing his office, was to open one of the compartments of his trunk, which contains an enlarged space and is housing the real Alastor Moody. He appears to be in poor health, doubtlessly worsened by the multiple rounds of Cruciatus the false Moody gleefully subjected him to. The false Moody taunted him with the fate of the Longbottoms, describing it in such terms as to imply that he was present during their torture, which narrows the possibilities considerably. Rather to our surprise, the false Moody also threatened to curse the real Moody with the "Psychiapetra Curse," as he claimed the Longbottoms had been. Potter and Weasley are considering ways to pass this information to Longbottom. They will probably bungle it.

In any case, after a time the false Moody closed the trunk and began grunting and tugging at his clothes. I'm afraid we had not considered this possibility when placing the camera, which was not very wise of us. Fortunately the jacket landed with its buttons facing up, so that we could sometimes see bits and pieces of what was happening. Still, we may need to consider a better placement.

In any case, the false Moody reverted to his normal form. The real Moody was missing large portions of his hair, so probably the imposter is using polyjuice. I am including the photos I took when parts of him were visible in the mirror - you can see that he is taller than Moody, has dark blond hair, and in one photo we could see most of his body as he passed the desk, if from an odd angle.

Blaise and Granger both brought books about the Death Eater trials, and we determined that the false Moody is probably Barty Crouch, Jr. The book says he died in 1982 in Azkaban, and I have no way of explaining this discrepancy. Blaise pointed out, however, that it does explain his recent testimony on the subject of Lord Black: his goal was not to exonerate Black, but to implicate his father.

At this point he stopped moving around. We heard parchment moving occasionally, and surmised that he was probably grading homework. We settled in and pulled out homework of our own, rather than staring at an empty mirror indefinitely.

After an hour or so, however, we had a second stroke of luck: he got a firecall from Pettigrew. We gather Pettigrew is using the floo connection at the Crouch residence, visiting there as needed. The false Moody addressed Pettigrew as "Wormtail," which Potter says is his nickname from his school days, and Pettigrew addressed the false Moody as Crouch, confirming our surmise. I have attached the transcript of their conversation, but it does not immediately seem to include anything important.

We stayed until curfew, but nothing further happened. Still, we have achieved a great deal in a short period of time.

Yours, etc

Theophanes Nott

\---

Dear Theo,

I'm including some of the gingersnaps I made with Mum and Dad yesterday. I hope you like them. We make them every year before Christmas. We make other Christmas biscuits too, but we're not going to make those just yet. We'll make them when Ace is home.

It's a little hard, figuring out what to do without Ace and what to save for him to do with us. We miss him. I guess you wizards are used to it, but I don't know anyone else who goes to boarding school.

Dad and I hung the lights on the roof this past weekend. I admit that part was easier to do without Ace! He always begs to climb the ladder the entire time, and it drives me and Dad crazy. But we missed him when we did the door and the front gate. We won't dress the tree until he's home.

Do wizards celebrate Christmas the same way we do, with trees and lights and gifts?

Yours,

Emily

\---

Dear Emily,

Thank you! The gingersnaps are delicious. Blaise and Daphne send their thanks as well.

We have mostly the same traditions, I think. We exchange gifts on Christmas morning. We use conjured lights to decorate, so I imagine those are different from muggle ones, but we do decorate trees. The Great Hall is beautiful right now; they've put up a dozen trees, all trimmed with twinkling lights and conjured icicles.

We don't have the same tradition of doing things together, though. Flippy always did all the decorating at home. My father and I would exchange gifts, of course, and have a meal together, but the preparations for the holiday were not a family tradition. I think some wizarding families do more together than others, and there are always children who are homesick around this time of year. I'm sure Ace will be glad to be going home.

I've never made gingersnaps, or any other kind of food. Flippy has always done the cooking. Perhaps you'll show me how sometime?

Yours, as ever,

Theo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The discussion of Fred and George's wands is, of course, pure speculation, but I regard it as canon that most of the Weasleys use inherited wands. Ron's first wand is "Charlie's old wand," and since Charlie had graduated just three months before, I think we can assume that the wand hadn't been a particularly good match for him either, since he clearly made replacing it a priority. Therefore I figure that they probably all had hand-me-down wands, some of which matched better than others.


	16. Chapter 16

"Daphne had to use the bathroom. She'll be here in a bit," Blaise announced as he and Theo entered the unused classroom with the large mirror.

Granger nodded, and Potter and Weasley looked up from their discussion. The chairs were still arranged in a loose half-circle facing the mirror, though the mirror was dark. Crouch must have put his coat down with the camera facing the wall.

"Anything interesting?" Theo asked Granger, nodding towards the dictation quill and scroll of parchment that they'd left for the day.

Granger shook her head. "Just his classes, which seem normal to me. Well, normal for him anyway. He did threaten Professor Snape at one point, but it was all vague threats, nothing specific."

"Very well." Theo sat down, slightly at a loss for something to say.

Blaise threw himself into a chair. "Potter, is it true that the golden egg makes a terrible shrieking noise when you open it?"

"Where did you hear that?" Weasley asked.

"Oliver Bulstrode heard it from his cousin Felix Bulstrode in Hufflepuff. I assume Potter's and Diggory's eggs are identical," Blaise explained.

"It's true, anyway," Potter replied. "If you want to hear it I can bring it next time we meet."

"Or you could have your house elf fetch it now," Blaise suggested.

Granger gasped. "Harry! What house elf?!" she shrieked.

Potter shifted in his chair. "He means Dobby. He's not _my_ house elf, I just asked him if he'd be willing to help me with some stuff and he said yes."

Granger narrowed her eyes. "What stuff, exactly?"

Potter looked down at his hands. "Well, it's this Yule Ball. I...Ron and I asked if he could help a little with our robes. Making them fit right, and all. He was really happy to do it."

"And if that mental elf brings our robes back covered in socks and flashing colors, I'm blaming you," Weasley piped up.

Potter smiled a little at that. "Yeah, sure."

Granger seemed to settle down a bit. "I still don't think it's fair," she said firmly. "House elves have clearly been brainwashed, and we can't expect Dobby to shake off all the compulsions at once."

Theo was about to protest, but Daphne entered just then. "I apologize for making you wait," she said. "Shall we start?"

Potter looked confused, so Theo replied. "We might as well. We now know who is pretending to be Moody, where the real Moody is, how Pettigrew is contacting Crouch, and we have confirmed that Pettigrew is assisting Riddle. What do we do next?"

"First of all, who else knows?" Blaise put in. "Theo, I know you told your father. Potter, did you tell Lord Black?"

Potter shook his head. "Sirius...." he started, but then trailed off.

"Sirius isn't exactly sane at the moment," Granger explained. "Especially on the subject of Pettigrew. We're concerned that he might do something rash if he knew where Pettigrew is. He knows about Harry's dream, so he can contribute to our research, and we mentioned the Psychiapetra Curse in case he comes across anything related to it, but we made it sound like it was something Moody talked about in class."

Blaise nodded. "Have you told anyone else? Granger? Weasley? Daphne?"

They shook their heads.

"So back to the question: what do we do?" Theo asked again.

"We should tell Professor Dumbledore," Granger replied.

Theo and Blaise exchanged glances.

Granger glared at them. "Why not?" she demanded.

"Because Dumbledore hasn't done much," Potter spoke up.

Granger directed the glare at him. "Well, he's very busy..." she began.

"Come on, Hermione, it took me one letter to get Sirius a trial!" Potter protested. "Just one! And Dumbledore knows this political stuff way better than I do."

"But Harry!"

Potter clenched his fists. Clearly this had been building for some time. "I've been talking to Sirius, you know. He's not well, and he keeps thinking that Dumbledore got him cleared. But he didn't! It was me! And he won't admit it!"

Granger opened her mouth to object, but Potter didn't give her a chance to get a word in.

"And he didn't even try to get me out of this Tournament," he continued, folding his arms and slumping down a bit. "He agreed with Snape that someone is trying to kill me, and then he just let everything keep going. The only people who have helped me at all are you lot and the impostor Moody."

"And Hagrid," Granger put in.

"And Hagrid," Potter agreed, rather reluctantly.

"We should still tell him," Granger insisted.

Theo cleared his throat. "I'm still not inclined to tell Dumbledore, but I suppose I understand why you think you should. If you do, please leave the three of us out of it. We could be in significant danger if our involvement gets out. Take the credit for yourself."

Granger bit her lip, but nodded. "I won't tell him right away, anyway. But we should keep it in mind as an option if we get in over our heads."

"That's fair," Daphne replied.

They were silent for a minute.

"Pettigrew isn't much of a threat," Potter said thoughtfully. "I bet we could take him. Sirius and Remus both say he's not much of a dueler."

Weasley leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Crouch will be harder to deal with. He's been throwing around some pretty strong curses in the upper classes. And with the eye, it's hard to catch him off-guard."

"Maybe we could potion him?" Daphne suggested.

"He's pretty suspicious of the food he eats, and he only drinks from that flask," Potter pointed out.

"That does make it harder," Daphne agreed. "I think I've seen a few potions that can be applied to a chair or a doorway that might still work. Or perhaps one of the house elves would be willing to help."

Granger scowled at the mention of house elves, but Theo and Blaise were nodding.

"Actually, couldn't a house elf get into his room while he's sleeping?" Weasley asked.

Theo's eyes widened. He'd never considered that possibility. "That....would be useful. Your house elf already has freedom in Hogwarts. He could give potions to Crouch, steal polyjuice and hair for us, maybe even let us in the room."

"Polyjuice and hair?" Potter asked, looking nauseated.

Weasley was nodding. "If one of us polyjuiced as Crouch, we could tell Wormtail whatever we wanted."

"Or land a confundus on him," Blaise suggested. "It doesn't sound like his willpower is particularly strong."

"Right."

"But then what?" Potter asked.

"Getting rid of Crouch and Pettigrew would still help," Granger said slowly. "Riddle needs them to help him, and we don't know how long he would last without the potion that Pettigrew makes for him."

"But he has other supporters," Theo pointed out. "He may even have contacted some of them already, though my father hasn't heard anything from his old circles."

"Has Black's research turned anything up?" Blaise asked.

Potter grimaced. "Not really. I think he's found some options, but they're so dark he won't tell me about them."

Theo nodded. "The Black family is as dark as they come, so that's not really surprising."

"Some of those old rituals....well, I certainly wouldn't be willing to do them," Daphne said, shuddering. "If we get desperate we might be able to take a look at them and see if we can alter them to be more acceptable, but altering rituals is a dicey proposition."

They fell silent. Theo tapped his fingers against his thigh, thinking back through the adventures Potter had told them about. "What about that mirror?" he asked. "The mirror from first year? Is it still down there?"

Potter looked startled. "I've never looked. Why? Do you think it would be useful against Riddle?"

Theo shrugged. "It might be. The way you described it, it wouldn't be hard to end up sitting in front of it for a long time if nobody pulled you away from it."

Potter thought that over. "I don't think that would be a long-term solution, but it might help for a while," he concluded.

"Can't hurt to check," Weasley agreed.

"What about the snake, Harry?" Granger asked. "Do you think you could control her with Parseltongue?"

Potter shrugged. "Probably not. Riddle would hear me and contradict anything I said, and she knows him better. Anyway, what would we have her do? Killing Riddle's current body won't help us."

"True." Granger leaned her chin on one hand. "You might be able to have her kill Pettigrew, but there's lots of easier ways to do that."

"Can we use Moody? The real one?" Blaise asked quietly.

"Possibly, but I doubt he's in any state to fight," Daphne replied.

"We should get him out anyway," Granger said firmly. "We can't leave him there being tortured!"

Theo shook his head, and saw Weasley was doing so as well. "We can't, Hermione," Weasley said. "We'd tip our hand to Crouch."

"But he's being tortured!" Granger protested.

"And we will get him out," Theo agreed. "But we cannot do so until we have a plan. From what I've heard of Mad-Eye Moody, if given the choice between getting tortured for an extra month and letting Crouch and Pettigrew and Riddle get away, he would definitely choose to stay where he is."

"He's got a point, Hermione," Potter agreed.

Granger didn't look happy about it, but she nodded.

They fell silent again, thinking.

"Would any of the other teachers be able to help?" Granger asked after a while.

They all looked at her.

Granger held up her hands defensively. "I know, I'm a know-it-all, but it's worth considering. They're all very knowledgeable in their respective fields."

They considered it.

"No one is entirely certain which side Professor Snape is actually on," Blaise said slowly.

"Which is a shame, since he knows more about the Dark Arts than practically anyone," Daphne added. She tilted her head to the side. "I think Professor Flitwick might be helpful, if we choose to consult him. He's an excellent dueler, for one thing, and for another his breadth of knowledge is astonishing. If we can't find a solution, it might be worth asking him."

Granger and Theo nodded. "What about Professor McGonagall?" Theo asked, directing his question at Potter.

Potter scowled. "McGonagall never listens to us anyway."

"I think she'd listen if we presented her with solid evidence, and she might have helpful ideas. But she would definitely tell Professor Dumbledore, so we should only consider telling her if we want him to know," Granger responded.

"I don't think most of the others would be much help," Daphne mused. "If we do want to try adapting a dark ritual, we'll want Professor Vector's help, but she's unlikely to be more generally helpful."

Granger frowned, but nodded. "Her knowledge is very....focused, I guess."

This time the silence was broken by Weasley's growling stomach. Granger looked annoyed, but Daphne checked her watch and said, "It's about time for dinner. We should go."

Theo stood up. "Well, we'll keep on with the research. I'm going home for the holiday, so my father and I will see what we can find in our family's library."

"I'm bringing home several Potions reference books from the Slytherin library anyway, so I'll be reading those," Daphne added.

Blaise straightened his robes. "I doubt my mother's collection will have anything relevant. Perhaps you would be willing to send me a few books, Theo?"

Theo nodded. "I'll see what we have. The Black library is likely to be more extensive, but I don't know that Lord Black will want to loan his books to those he doesn't know."

"I...might be able to ask," Potter put in. "You did help get him a trial, after all."

Blaise nodded, the corners of his lips tilting up.

Granger bit her lip. "We're all staying here for the holiday, so we'll have access to the library here. I guess I'll look at ritual magic or soul magic? Or I might look into the histories of other Dark Lords; I like history, and I've had unexpectedly good results that way before."

"Sounds good," Daphne replied. "I doubt Hogwarts has much about soul magic that isn't in the Restricted Section, but histories often include details the Headmaster didn't think to hide." Daphne picked up her book bag. "What about you two?" she asked, looking at Potter and Weasley.

Weasley looked gobsmacked to be included. Potter shifted his weight uneasily.

"I guess Ron and I will take the other two major classes," Potter said after a minute. "You're looking into Potions, so Ron will look at Transfiguration and I'll look at Charms and Hexes."

Daphne nodded and turned to leave.

"We'll see you at the Yule Ball, then," Theo said.

Granger smiled at him. "See you then. Happy Christmas."

\---

Theo greeted his father formally at King's Cross Station, and neither of them said anything else until they were home and the door was shut behind them.

Thaddeus stopped a few steps into the foyer and put his hands on Theo's shoulders. "It is good to have you home safe, Theophanes."

Theo let out a breath and felt himself relax slightly. "It is good to be home safe, Father."

After a moment, Thaddeus turned and led the way into the sitting room, where tea was laid out. "Come and sit. Nothing further has happened, I take it?"

Theo sat and poured his tea. "Nothing of interest. We met again and discussed next steps, but none of us have a way of defeating the Dark Lord. Ridding ourselves of Crouch and Pettigrew would certainly slow him down, and if we find no other alternative I expect Potter and Lord Black will do so, but we would all prefer something more comprehensive."

Thaddeus nodded gravely. "I had little interaction with either of them, but I doubt that Pettigrew or Crouch will present much of a difficulty, now that we know where they are. It would be wise to be wary of Crouch, though. He was one of Bellatrix's protégés, and that position is not a gentle one. He is almost certainly mad." He sipped his tea, then set the cup down. "I do have some news, though: I visited Crouch Manor today."

"Oh?"

Thaddeus leaned back and crossed his legs at the ankle. "Their Floo was locked, of course, and it took me a while to get through, but eventually I managed it. I found Barty Crouch Sr. sitting in a chair in the drawing room, staring blankly at the wall. He did not react to my presence in any way."

Theo's brows drew together. "Is he dead?"

"He was breathing. I believe he is under a long-term Imperius. It may be possible to use him; the Dark Lord did some experimentation with overlapping Imperius curses, and the long and the short of it is that if a person is under multiple Imperiuses, he obeys whichever master has stronger will and focus. As Crouch Jr. is clearly not focused on his father most of the time, it would be easy enough to overpower the existing Imperius." Thaddeus paused and took another sip of tea. "Of course, there is a risk that he would simply go mad, giving both casters a severe headache in the process. I do not believe the Dark Lord ever determined exactly what caused that, but it happened occasionally."

"Noted," Theo replied. He sipped his tea thoughtfully, then added, "Although I do not immediately see a use for Crouch Sr. I suppose we could use him to get support from the Ministry, but the Ministry is not particularly reliable assistance. If we had known of this earlier, we might have used it to get Potter out of the Tournament, which might be useful eventually, if not immediately, but after his performance at the First Task it is too late for that."

Thaddeus smiled slightly. "Indeed."

"In the meantime, I have promised to look in our library for ways of containing or destroying a wraith, and the others have their own research to do. I don't know that Potter and Weasley will produce anything useful - they seemed rather stunned by the discovery that they were expected to do anything - but Granger is actually quite intelligent."

Thaddeus nodded. "Sirius Black was accounted fairly intelligent by those who knew him, and I have heard he is now living with Remus Lupin, who taught you last year."

Theo brightened. "Professor Lupin wasn't too bad," he replied. "We would be glad of his help. I just hope they don't rush in rashly. I have already had to talk Granger out of either informing Dumbledore or immediately rescuing Moody."

Thaddeus chuckled. "Gryffindors."

\---

"Happy Christmas Theo!" Emily called, beckoning him into the warm house.

"Happy Christmas!" he replied, taking off his muggle coat. He hung it up successfully, then turned to look at Emily. Her cheeks were flushed and she was smiling, and he could see the glint of the silver of her emergency portkey above the neckline of her rose-colored jumper.

She stared at him for a moment, then reached forward to hug him. "I'm glad to see you," she murmured.

"I'm glad to see you too," he replied, hugging her back. "How have you been?"

"I've been okay. I was a little scared after your father gave us the portkeys; he was so serious about it. But it's not a big deal anymore."

Theo smiled wryly. "I guess that can't be helped. I'm glad it doesn't bother you now, but I'm also glad you're wearing it. My father said you all chose 'as you wish' as the trigger phrase?"

Emily nodded. "It's from a movie. We won't forget it, and it seemed like it might be good to have them all use the same phrase."

Theo followed Emily into the living room. "That makes sense. What movie?"

"It's called _The Princess Bride_. We'll totally have to watch it some time."

"I look forward to it."

Emily fidgeted a little, then pulled out two packages wrapped in colorful but unanimated paper. "Anyway, Happy Christmas," she said, pushing them towards him.

"Oh! Thank you," Theo replied. He set them in his lap, but before he opened them he pulled a large box from his pocket. "I didn't like to come empty-handed, so I brought you some candy."

"Thanks," Emily said, taking it. "Ace brought home some of those chocolate frogs. He totally loves them - he bites their heads off and pretends to be drooling guts all over the place." She broke off rather suddenly, looking nervous.

Theo laughed. "I didn't include those. This is just Chocoballs in different flavors. They have cream and fruit inside."

Emily relaxed, laughing. "Thank goodness! I actually can't bring myself to eat Chocolate Frogs. Biting into something that's still moving seems so gross!"

"Well, these are safe, thankfully." Theo put the box on the table and lifted the smaller of Emily's gifts. He would have thought it was a book, except that it was too slim and too square.

Theo tore the paper off. It was a thin square, about the length of his hand, made of some hard, shiny material, and it was decorated with five boys, all dressed in white and lying on a bed together, and the words "Everything Changes." Theo looked up at Emily, puzzled.

Emily grinned. "It's the Take That CD I got you. Open the other one; they work together."

Theo placed the square carefully on the table and turned to the larger package. It contained a muggle device shaped like a small upturned cauldron, made of a shimmery blue material with round silver patches. He looked up at Emily and raised his eyebrow.

Emily reached forward to take it. "It's for playing muggle music. I made sure this one works on batteries, so you can probably take it to school if you're careful." She flipped it over and carefully demonstrated how to place the batteries in their compartment, then turned it right side up and set it on the table.

Emily picked up the square next, and spent several minutes picking at the surface until the outer layer of clear plastic came off. "These are always impossible to open," she commented, peeling off a long piece of printed tape from one end. Theo was glad he hadn't tried it himself.

The square cracked open, as it turned out, and inside it was a silver disk that reflected rainbows when Emily picked it up. Theo leaned forward, fascinated, but before he got a good look at it Emily had made the top of the music device lift up and placed the disk inside. She pushed a button on the front and sat back expectantly.

The device made some brief whirring noises, and then the music came out. It was different from anything Theo had heard.

"It's....interesting," he said after a minute. "Bouncy. And the voices....I don't know, they don't seem as strong as the singing I'm used to, but they do fit the music."

Emily smiled. "I hope you like it. We have lots of different kinds of music, actually, so if you want we can find other ones to listen to. But I like this band. This song is kind of disco-y, but the next one isn't so much."

Theo didn't know what "disco" meant, but he nodded and smiled and listened. It was very strange, but not entirely terrible.

They listened to a couple of songs quietly, and then Emily reached out and pushed a button. The music was replaced by the soft whirring sound from earlier. "What do you think?" she asked anxiously.

"I....I think I'll need to listen to it a few times to get used to it, but I think I like it," Theo said, and Emily smiled.


	17. Chapter 17

" _Tiruvantel ar varyuvantel vilya_." Thaddeus took his hands from Theo's head. "Stay safe, Theophanes."

"It's just the Yule Ball, Father," Theo responded, moving to stand in front of the dressing mirror to check that his hair was tidy.

"It is, but these are dangerous times," his father responded. "A little extra security will hurt nothing. I hope you enjoy yourself."

Theo leaned forward to apply a coat of muggle mascara. "I hope to. My favor to Miss Li will be easily discharged, and I have friends enough to enjoy the rest."

"Indeed. How did Emily take the news that you must attend without her?"

Theo glanced at his father in the mirror. "I haven't told her about the Yule Ball, sir."

Thaddeus raised one eyebrow. "Indeed?"

Theo met his eyes in the mirror, his brows drawing together in puzzlement. "I thought it was the most sensible course of action, given that it could only disappoint her. Do you not agree?"

"I am sure it seemed so to you," Thaddeus replied mildly.

Theo, satisfied with his cosmetics, took off the platinum brooch at his throat and re-pinned it, adjusting the angle. He sought for a change of topic. "What will you do while I am out, Father? Do you have any plans?"

Thaddeus smiled politely, clearly allowing the subject to drop. "I will continue our research, naturally. I was able to acquire a few books from the Forbidden Library at the Ministry, and I will probably start them tonight."

"Was that wise, Father?"

Thaddeus spread his hands. "Wise enough. I took appropriate precautions, of course: bribing the attendant to not record my presence, and then obliviating him of the encounter. If the Dark Lord delves deep enough to find it, we are dead in any case."

Theo turned to face his father, his brows drawn together. "It isn't safe, Father."

"Nothing is truly safe, Theo, and I believe this to be the safest course of action."

Theo straightened his cuffs and stepped forward. "Very well, Father. Be safe."

\---

"Good evening, Sue. You look lovely," Theo greeted his temporary date at the foot of Ravenclaw tower.

She did, in fact, look lovely. The embroidered sage green fabric of her dress set off her complexion, and the skin of her bare shoulders shimmered.

"Thank you," she replied, smiling a little. "You look well yourself."

Theo offered his arm, and they made their way through the halls towards the Great Hall.

"I bought the skin shimmer potion from your friend Daphne," Sue said after a minute. "I don't recognize it at all. Do you know what she uses to create the shimmer effect?"

So Blaise had expanded his range of muggle cosmetics. It figured. "I'm afraid I don't," Theo replied. "It's quite an attractive effect, though."

Sue nodded. They walked quietly on.

"Have you tried any of the lip potions Daphne has been selling?" Theo asked after a minute.

"I have. The first one was rather sticky, and didn't last long, but the next seemed improved," Sue replied.

Theo was considering what to reply to that when they turned a corner and joined the throng of other students. Thankfully he didn't have to maintain the conversation after that.

They found the line for the photographer and joined it. The chattering crowd around them was almost overwhelming.

Sue was peering around, but Theo spotted Weasley before she did. He touched her shoulder and pointed him out, then pulled out his wand to clean the glitter from his fingers while she waved to get Wesley's attention. Muggles might have interesting cosmetics, but they were terrible at ensuring their cosmetics stayed put.

Weasley made his way through the crowd and joined them in the line. He and Sue grinned at each other.

"Hello," Weasley finally said.

"Hi," Sue replied.

"You look...you look nice," Weasley told her.

"So do you," she replied.

He actually did, Theo noticed. Weasley's hair was at least combed for once, and his midnight blue robe with silver embroidery made him look nearly regal. Thank Merlin for house elves.

"Good evening," Theo interjected, smiling slightly.

Weasley remembered his presence. "Nott," he said, sticking his hand out. "Thanks for this."

"Not at all," Theo replied, shaking Weasley's hand. "And you will owe me a favor or two."

"Right."

Sue gasped. "There's Padma! I'm going to go say hi. You two stay here, I'll be back in a minute." She bustled off, leaving Theo and Weasley eyeing each other warily.

Theo sighed. He'd promised to get photos with Sue, so he couldn't leave. And she clearly wanted photos with Weasley, so he wouldn't leave. And Weasley seemed unlikely to start any sort of small talk.

A half-hidden poster for _Percy Weasley: Dementor Slayer_ , still hanging on the wall, caught Theo's eye. "What does your brother think about being painted as a hero in the first wizarding movie?" Theo asked, gesturing to the poster.

Weasley grinned sheepishly. "Actually, I'm pretty sure he doesn't know," he replied.

Theo's eyebrows rose. "He doesn't know?" he repeated.

Weasley shrugged a bit. "I think Fred and George warned them off, actually. Mum'd go spare if she knew."

That made sense. Madam Weasley was known for her temper, after all. Theo smirked. "Well, I hope they can finish it before she finds out, then."

Weasley grinned. "It's going to be wicked! Dean showed me a photo of the rehearsal - they've had him helping to paint the background bits, you know - and it looks amazing. They told him they don't need him anymore a couple weeks ago, so they must be nearly done."

Theo was about to respond with speculation about planned release dates, but then Sue came back and Weasley was distracted.

Theo posed for the requisite photos, then bowed slightly to both of them and left them to it. He found Blaise and Daphne in time to watch the champions process in. Delacour was escorted by Davies, Krum had apparently asked Granger (who looked remarkably well in her periwinkle blue gown) to be his date, Diggory had brought Cho, and Potter was escorting Padma Patil.

"Thank Merlin for house elves," Theo muttered to Blaise.

"Oh?" Blaise asked.

Theo gestured to where Potter was standing. His hair was tied back, for once, and he was wearing robes in a very nice two-tone dupioni silk in wine red and forest green. "I'm just relieved he isn't making a fool of us," Theo explained.

Blaise smirked. "But do you recognize it?" he asked.

Theo's brows drew together and he looked at Blaise, puzzled. "Why would I recognize Potter's dress robes?"

Blaise's lips were twitching and his eyes were sparkling. "Because they used to be Malfoy's."

"Are you certain?" Theo asked, starting to grin.

Blaise nodded. "Draco wore those the summer before last, at the Belby-Ashbane wedding. I think Narcissa meant it to be a delicate compliment to Horatio Belby. It's a very distinctive silk."

Theo tilted his head. "You would know. Do you think Malfoy will recognize it?"

Blaise shrugged. "Malfoy tends to be blind where he is uninterested, so we will see."

Theo snorted, shaking his head. "I can't believe the house elf stole Malfoy's robes."

"House elves are half-mad anyway, and they can twist their orders when they like," Daphne murmured. "You never know what they'll come up with."

Theo chuckled. After a minute, he added, "What about Weasley's robes? Are those Malfoy's too?"

"I don't recognize them," Blaise admitted. "But also Weasley is taller than Malfoy. I have a feeling those might be an old set of Lucius Malfoy's robes, since the house elf was raiding their closets anyway."

Theo chuckled.

"I'll have to tell him, at an opportune moment." Blaise leaned back, pleased with the thought.

The champions opened the dancing after dinner. Blaise quickly led Daphne to the floor, and Theo asked one of the Beauxbatons students to dance.

After seeing his first partner back to her seat, Theo began to methodically circulate. He danced with Pansy, then Daphne, then moved on to Morag MacDougall and Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott and Lavender Brown. After dancing with Cho Chang and returning her to Diggory, Theo greeted Krum and Granger, and asked Granger to dance.

"I thought you didn't want to be seen with me?" Granger asked as they moved onto the dance floor.

Theo smiled. "I've danced with half a dozen girls already. One more won't be notable."

Granger raised her eyebrows but didn't comment.

"How is the research going?" Theo asked.

Granger's hand twitched in his. "It's going. You know how it is: you never know when the next book will have the answer. Remus - Professor Lupin, I mean - did turn up the text that describes Psychiapetra Curse, so we've passed that to Bill Weasley. He's a curse breaker, you know."

"I didn't, but that seems sensible." Theo guided Granger through a turn, then brought her back in. "What about Potter and Weasley? Have they been contributing anything?"

"Surprisingly, yes," she replied. "I think it helped that you asked Harry directly, actually. He's been pretty focused."

"Happy to be of service," Theo murmured.

"Of course, it helps that he likes the topic," Granger added thoughtfully. "He's been spending quite a bit of time teaching himself the more interesting spells he finds. But in between that he's been reading diligently. He's found a few charms for repelling or anchoring ghosts, but I rather doubt they would work on a wraith."

Theo nodded. "Might be worth writing them down anyway, in case we can adapt them somehow."

"Oh, agreed." Granger was silent for a moment, then continued. "Ron was useless at first, but then I got the idea to tell Sue what we were looking for. Just in general terms, of course. Since then they've taken over looking into ritual magic, so I've been reading transfiguration. And history, of course. As Daphne predicted, I can't find any texts on soul magic."

Theo nodded again, and twirled Granger through a whisk.

"What about you lot? Anything interesting yet?" she asked.

"Much the same as you," Theo replied easily. "My father took some of the most dangerous books in the Nott library, and Blaise and I have been reading the others. We've written down the things that might be useful, but we've yet to find anything that's neither impossible nor worse than the Dark Lord."

Granger pressed her lips together, but nodded.

"Incidentally," Theo added, the corners of his lips twitching upwards, "if you happen to come across the current location of the golden purification basins from Solomon's Temple, they would simplify matters considerably."

Granger chuckled. "I imagine they would!"

They fell silent. Theo was going to leave it at that - the song would be over soon - but then something occurred to him. "It's possible that it's taken care of, but I think I should remind you that Lord Black is capable of providing emergency portkeys for you and your family members."

"Oh." Granger blinked. "No, no one had mentioned that. It would be nice to have, too. Portkeys have to be registered with the Ministry, don't they? Will they let my parents have one?"

"Portkeys are regulated by the government of their destination," Theo corrected. "While it is true that registering an emergency portkey with the British Ministry is less than ideal, for a number of reasons, it is also true that Lord Black probably has property in other countries."

"Of course." Granger nodded, thinking that over. She met his eyes. "Thank you. I'll have to see about that."

After the song had ended and Theo had made small talk with Krum and Granger for a few minutes, he danced with Padma Patil, and then her sister Parvati. Having danced with most of the girls in his year, Theo felt justified in considering his duty discharged.

"I saw you dancing with that mudblood Granger, Nott," a voice growled from the shadows of the hallway.

Theo turned and peered into the darkness. "What do you care?" he asked calmly.

Graham Montague detached himself from the shadows and came forward.

"We just don't like to see a good family brought low," said Etienne Rosier, one of the Slytherin prefects, coming forward to join Montague. Elsie Bulstrode, his girlfriend, followed him, clinging to his arm and giggling.

"If you were watching me, you saw me dance with a lot of girls. And I'm not so uncouth as to insult Krum by dismissing his date," Theo replied, studying them closely. Slytherins didn't normally confront each other outside of their own territory. Their movements were a little loose: perhaps they had smuggled alcohol into the Yule Ball.

A door opened and shut, and the light cut across Montague's face briefly. Theo caught the flash of purple in Montague's pupils. Damson Flight, then, or one of its variants. There was nearly always someone in Slytherin who was experimenting with intoxicating potions, and Damson Flight was particularly quick to make.

"You were talking with Weasley, too. Even did him a favor," Rosier spat.

Theo rolled his eyes dramatically. "If you fail to understand the fundamentals of politic behavior, I'm afraid I don't have time for remedial tutoring."

"You calling me stupid?" Rosier demanded. Bulstrode hissed and drew her wand.

Theo glanced sideways at Montague, who had stepped sideways and also drawn his wand. Theo stepped backwards, trying to get the wall at his back.

" _Reflecta_!" came from down the hall, and a silvery shield snapped into place just as Rosier cast. The spell bounced and hit Montague, who howled and clutched his face.

"That's enough of that," said Violet Elessar, the Head Girl, coming down the hall. "Fifteen points from Slytherin for fighting, and you'd better get to the infirmary to get that checked."

The three Slytherins glared at her, but slunk off. Theo smirked. One of the disadvantages of Damson Flight was the lack of antidote, and Madam Pomfrey would probably notice it.

"All right there? It's Nott, right?" Elessar asked.

Theo nodded. "Thanks for the save."

"No problem. Rosier has been complaining about you for a while," Elessar replied, stowing her wand away.

"He complains about my politics?" Theo asked, surprised. Surely even Rosier didn't think the other prefects would be an entirely sympathetic audience to those complaints.

Elessar chuckled. "No, that wouldn't fly. I'm half-blood myself, you know - my father is a muggleborn, and he's told me about the last war. He had to change his name to make it harder for You-Know-Who to find his family. So no, Rosier doesn't openly complain that you don't hate muggleborns enough. He just says you're a troublemaker."

Theo smiled a bit. "That figures. I'll watch my back."

Elessar nodded and moved on, heading towards the bathroom at the end of the hall. Theo let out a deep breath and headed for the Entrance Hall. He wanted to go home.

\---

"Um. Good morning. Is...is Emily there?" Theo said into the phone. He hadn't quite expected the strange burring noise to cut off so suddenly and be replaced with Julie Harris's greeting. "Oh, this is Theo. Theo Nott," he added belatedly.

"Of course, Theo," Mrs. Harris replied, sounding amused. "Just a minute."

The phone went silent, except to a few soft background sounds that might have been people moving around. Theo wondered if he was supposed to do anything.

"Hi Theo," came Emily's voice.

Theo smiled. "Hi Emily," he echoed. He hesitated, then took a deep breath. "I know you were going to show me the...the computer thing? today, but I had a long night last night - there was a, a dinner, and I had to be polite to a lot of people - and I'm not sure I'm awake enough to focus properly. Could we just go sketching or something? And do the computer another time?"

"Sure. Would you rather not meet?" Emily offered.

Theo gripped the phone tighter. He knew this was a terrible idea. "No, I want to see you! I just - I guess I don't want anything new right now?"

"That's okay, Theo. We can just hang out. Would you like me to come to your house, for a change? I'll bring my sketchpad."

"Yes, please do. I'd like that." Theo felt himself relaxing again. This might work after all.

\---

"Hey," Emily said when Theo opened the front gate. She was wearing a rose-colored jumper with a hood that framed her face, and her usual blue denim muggle trousers. The strap of a book bag crossed her shoulder.

Theo smiled at the sight of her and stepped back, gesturing her in. "Thanks for coming."

"Of course," Emily replied. She crossed the threshold and hugged him, resting her cheek against his shoulder.

Theo wrapped his arms around her and felt himself relax. This was definitely better.

After a minute they separated, smiling at each other, and Emily glanced around at the grounds. "It really is bigger on the inside!" she exclaimed. The sunlight reflecting off the mansion's large windows made her eyes sparkle.

Theo blinked. He'd forgotten that the space expansion would be unfamiliar to her. "Um. Yes. That's pretty common, actually. It's easier to expand the inside magically than it is to rebuild the outside. And it helps us hide from muggles."

Emily nodded. "That's what Dad said, after he was here helping your dad with setting up your phone. It's just hard to picture."

"Right." Theo pulled her hand through the crook of his arm and steered her towards the house. "Would you like tea? There's a nice fire in the sitting room, or we could join my father in the library." The door of the house swung open as they approached it.

Emily took a deep breath of the warmer air inside. "Tea would be nice. I don't mind about where, but I should greet your dad." She looked around at the inside of the house, noting the floating candles and the whispering portraits but not commenting on them.

"It's this way," Theo replied.

They started down the hallway, but Emily shrieked and jumped back almost immediately. Theo stopped and looked back at her, to see her staring at the stone tile floor.

"Stop that," Theo told the floor sternly, and the tiles immediately stopped shifting. "Sorry about that," he added to Emily, holding out his hand. "One of my ancestors enchanted it. It's an impressive piece of magic, but I guess you weren't expecting it."

Emily shook her head, but smiled and took his hand. "Sorry. I was just startled."

Theo smiled at her. "I don't blame you. I've been startled myself occasionally. I used to play with it as a boy, though, jumping from tile to tile and letting them carry me around."

They had reached the library door, and Theo pushed it open. The lights were dimmed inside, except for glowing circles around a blood-colored cloud in the middle of the room. A second look determined that Thaddeus Nott was standing in a complex runic circle, with a book open on a pedestal, and that the red cloud was already moving towards the open door.

Theo pushed Emily back, away from the library, and slammed the door. He whipped out his wand and cast Colloportus, staring wide-eyed at the closed door. A skittering sound came through the door, then silence.

Theo let out the breath he'd been holding. "Are you well?" he asked Emily, looking her over.

"I'm fine. What was that?"

"I am not certain." Theo pulled Emily further away from the library, and cast a Praesidio shield. "Flippy!" he called.

A moment passed, and then Flippy popped into the hallway. "Master Theo is well?" she asked.

"I believe so. Is my father well?" Theo asked.

Flippy nodded. "Master Nott is being well. Master Nott is saying he is putting away the bad book. Flippy is to be checking Master Theo and Master Theo's Emily."

Theo nodded and dropped the shield, allowing Flippy to approach. Flippy wrapped her thin fingers around Theo's hand and sniffed at his wrist, then repeated the process on Emily. She nodded firmly and popped away.

"What was that about?" Emily asked.

Theo canceled the Colloportus on the door. "House elves are much less vulnerable to dark magic than humans, so Flippy was checking each of us to make sure we weren't affected. Otherwise it might not be safe to open the door."

The door swung open, and Thaddeus came out and came towards them, putting his hands on Theo's shoulders. "You are well?"

"I am, Father."

Thaddeus held out a hand to shake hands with Emily. "Welcome to our home, Emily. I apologize for the unanticipated hazard. I was under the impression that Theo was to visit you today, but clearly I was mistaken."

Theo smiled. "I was, actually, but our plan changed. I apologize for not informing you, sir."

Emily shook hands with Thaddeus, then peered around him at the open library door. "Can I ask what you were doing, sir?" she asked.

"Research, actually. As you know, there are certain dangerous elements currently at play in our world. I hoped to find something useful in a certain powerful book. As you saw, there is significant danger in reading the book, for which reason it has been banned for some time, but with appropriate precautions it can be safely read."

"I see," Emily said softly. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

Thaddeus shook his head. "Not as yet. I did find several other spells and rituals of more general interest, but nothing that would accomplish what I seek to do."

They were silent for a moment, so Theo spoke up. "We were about to have tea, Father. Will you join us?"

Thaddeus smiled. "I will not. You young people will doubtless enjoy each other's company."

Theo smiled back, and turned to direct Emily towards the sitting room.

"Before we go, my mother told me to ask if you have plans for New Years," Emily said.

Theo exchanged a puzzled glance with his father. "New Years?" he asked.

"New Year's Eve? In a few days? Or do wizards not have that?" Emily asked.

Theo cleared his throat. "We're aware that January begins the year, of course, but we don't celebrate it in any particular way. I take it muggles do?"

"Yeah, we stay up until midnight and do fireworks. Not that my family goes to see the fireworks, actually, but we watch them on the television."

"That sounds very pleasant. And, as you may have deduced, we have no plans," Theo replied, smiling wryly.

Emily nodded. "Will you join us, then? It'll just be us and my grandparents, but we had to tell them about magic - they were there when Ace made a single biscuit into a whole plateful of them a few years ago."

Thaddeus exchanged glances with Theo again, and then nodded. "We'd be delighted."

Emily grinned, and Thaddeus stepped back to return to the library. Theo escorted Emily towards the sitting room and their tea.

"You said you had a long night," Emily said when they were settled up against each other on the loveseat. "Do you want to tell me about any of it? You don't have to, but if you want to talk...."

"Most of it was more boring than difficult," Theo replied. "Just talking and being polite. I'll admit it's a little harder now that I'm being polite to everyone, regardless of birth. The....I suppose I can no longer call them blood traitors, can I?" He grinned wryly at Emily, who leaned far enough away to gently smack his head before snuggling up again. "Those who are not part of current pureblood society are suspicious of me, and the purebloods object, rather vehemently. Actually that caused a rather sticky situation last night, but it was soon settled."

Emily was watching him carefully. Theo had tried to keep his voice nonchalant, but looking at her, he could tell he hadn't entirely succeeded.

"What sort of a sticky situation?" Emily asked.

Theo considered. He hadn't wanted to tell her about this, but in the face of her intent gaze, he didn't quite want to dodge, either. He shifted uncomfortably. "A few of them tried to attack me," he admitted. "A couple of the older Slytherins. They were intoxicated."

Emily's eyes brows drew together, and Theo hastened to reassure her. "I wasn't hurt or anything. One of the older girls - Violet Elessar, she's Head Girl this year - stepped in and made Rosier's spell rebound onto Montague. And I beat Montague when he challenged me earlier this year, so I don't think he'll try again."

Emily still looked concerned. "Did Montague challenge you about the pureblood thing also?"

Theo shifted again. He hadn't meant to mention that. "Yes, that was a while ago. He said I was a coward, I turned the air he was breathing into water. It was....it was a minor incident, really. You don't need to worry about it."

"But.…Ace says he's gotten stung or tripped from stray spells before, and Montague is a lot older than Ace. You could have been really hurt."

"Well, yes," Theo allowed, "but I wasn't. You don't have to worry about me, Emily. Nobody has died at Hogwarts in years."

Emily didn't look convinced, but she let it drop. Theo cast about for a change of subject. "So....I hadn't really considered where we might go to sketch. We have a few heirlooms that I practiced on when I was younger - there's one suit of armor, and a couple of swords and a whole series of enchanted goblets made by one of my ancestors - but I don't know if that would be interesting."

Emily chuckled. "Yeah, it's harder to find material when you can't go outside. We could always draw each other....or armor is fine too," she added hastily.

"Actually," Theo said slowly, thinking, "I suppose we could go to the kitchen garden. We keep it under warming charms, to extend the growing season. It's not as decorative as some parts of the garden, of course, but I expect something will be blooming."

Emily's eyes lit up. "Yes please! I've been so tired of winter lately."

When they got to the kitchen garden, they found it was even better than Theo had hoped: the rosewater lilies were in full bloom. Theo conjured a bench so they could sit and sketch.

"These are beautiful!" Emily said. "What are they?"

Theo picked one and gave it to her. "They're called rosewater lilies. I believe they're a magical hybrid, but I'd have to look it up. We use them to make a potion that keeps one's skin from becoming dry or red during the winter."

"Oh, like hand cream or moisturizer. Maybe I can try it someday." Emily tucked the lily behind her ear, but it wouldn't stay put.

Theo smiled, and reached out to hold it in place. "Here," he murmured, and cast a light sticking charm to hold it.

Emily giggled at him. They smiled at each other for a long moment, then blushed and turned away to pick up their sketchbooks.


	18. Chapter 18

"Happy New Year!" Julie Harris greeted Thaddeus and Theo at the kitchen door. They returned the greeting, a little hesitantly, and followed her into the house. Muggle music was playing in the dining room, but it was not like the music Theo had slowly been getting used to. It seemed a little less frenetic, and more rhythmic. Some sort of horn was playing the melody.

"What music is this?" Theo asked.

"Ah, you've got a taste for great music!" Ian replied, clapping him on the back. "This is John Coltrane, recorded back in the sixties. How do you like it?"

"It's quite pleasant, sir. Very lively."

"I picked up the album after I heard an interview about it on the radio. It's a real classic." He seemed about to continue, but then Thaddeus entered the room, having stopped to give Julie the bottle of wine they had brought. Ian turned to greet him, handing him a narrow glass with bubbling wine in it. "Good evening, Thaddeus! Glad you could make it!"

Emily appeared and tugged on Theo's shoulder, distracting him from their parents' conversation.

"Good evening," Theo said, reaching up to cover her hand with his own.

"Hi," she said, grinning, then took his hand and tugged him towards the living room. "Come on, come meet my grandparents, and then we can go hang upstairs."

The living room felt brighter and more crowded than it had in the summer, with the fire lit and a decorated Christmas tree taking up one corner. Emily's grandparents sat side by side on the sofa, smiling at them. They were older than Theo had expected: bird-like and frail, with white hair and bright eyes.

"Gram, Grandpa, this is Theo!" Emily introduced him.

Theo started to bow, then stopped and offered his hand to shake. "Good evening," he said, wishing Emily had been slightly more thorough in her introduction. He didn't know how to address them.

"How do you do, Theo?" asked Emily's grandmother. "You can call me Mrs. Price," she added.

"So you're the 'proper wizard' Emily's been talking about," said Mr. Price, shaking Theo's hand firmly and looking him over.

"Thank you, ma'am," Theo replied to Mrs. Price, then looked quizzically at Emily. "Is Ace not a proper wizard?"

Emily blinked, looking confused. "Well, of course he can do magic and all, but you grew up with it and all. You and your dad just....seem more magical, I guess."

"But Ace's birth does not make him less of a wizard," Theo replied, exasperated.

Emily shifted uncertainly. "I know, but you come in with your robes and your manners, and he's just....he's my brother, you know?"

"But manners don't make a wizard," Theo said, slowly, feeling a crazy sensation of _deja vu_ to similar arguments at Hogwarts. "And he wears robes at school. Manners can be taught; magic cannot."

"Sure, but he grew up without magic. I bet normal manners will always be more natural to him."

Theo's heart was pounding. Unconsciously, he loosened his wand in its holster and adjusted his stance. "That still doesn't mean-" he started, and cut off when he felt a heavy hand land on his shoulder.

Theo looked up, to see his father looking at him calmly. Theo took a breath and nodded slightly. Stepping back, he turned back to Emily. "I apologize," he said.

Emily smiled hesitantly at him. "It's okay," she said. "I guess...would it help if I said you were a pureblood wizard? Or like, pedigreed, or something? That's just a fact, not a value judgment."

Theo swallowed and nodded. "Pureblood would be more accurate."

"We non-magic folk have a saying," Mrs. Price spoke up. "We say that a prophet isn't accepted in his own country. It means that people who watched someone grow up have trouble seeing them as special or worthy of particular honor. I believe Emily simply meant that she finds you and your family more interesting than her brother, because she did not grow up with you."

Theo nodded again. His hands felt funny, and he flexed them to loosen his fingers. He set his shoulders and smiled at Mrs. Price. "Thank you, ma'am. Again, I apologize."

Mr. Price was watching him closely, and so was Ian, but Julie spoke up from the doorway. "Well, we're all here, so why don't we have a toast to open the evening? And then maybe....Thaddeus, we were rather hoping you might be willing to demonstrate a little bit of magic? I don't like to let Ace do magic in the house, at least, not without an adult to keep an eye on him."

The group broke up and shifted around, handing out glasses of sparkling wine to those who didn't have one, and Theo found himself clinking his glass with Emily and Mrs. Price before drinking to "friendship and a happy new year!"

"Are we okay?" Emily whispered.

"Yeah, we're fine," Theo whispered back. "I just...I guess it's strange to hear you say that, after hearing it from the blood purists all year."

Emily's eyes widened. "Ohhhh. I hadn't thought of that. Sorry!"

Theo chuckled and took her hand.

In the center of the room, Thaddeus had sent Ace upstairs to get his wand, after rebuking him for not having it to hand. "If you will permit, Ian?" Thaddeus asked, nodding to Ian as head of the house.

Ian gestured him to go ahead, so Thaddeus drew his wand and quickly cast a protective circle. "I am certain you would prefer to see your son perform his own magic, so I will merely cast a circle, to protect us all - Ace included - from any minor mishaps."

Ace returned with his wand, and Thaddeus showed him where to stand.

"Um." Ace seemed uncertain, glancing at his parents and grandparents, but finally glanced at the fire and seemed to find inspiration there. He spotted a small plate abandoned on the coffee table, picked it up, and dumped the crumbs on it onto the table. He stepped back into the center of the room, then seemed to remember the crumbs.

"Um?" he asked, glancing from them to Thaddeus.

Thaddeus chuckled. "Go ahead, Ace. I can fix it if you misjudge the cast."

Ace stepped forward and cast the vanishing charm on the crumbs.

"Well, that's handy," Julie commented, leaning forward to examine the table.

"Did I get the table too?" Ace asked anxiously.

Mr. Price leaned forward and ran his hand over the table surface. "I don't believe so. There's a small scrape, but it was probably there beforehand."

"That can be mended, regardless," Thaddeus interjected, and sent a quick Reparo at the table.

Mr. Price gasped slightly. The table top was perfectly smooth, as if it were brand new. "Very handy indeed," he murmured.

"What did you want the plate for?" Theo prompted Ace, seeing that he was looking uncertain again.

Ace looked at the plate in his hand. "Oh right! Watch this." He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and said, " _Lapis Incendio_!"

The plate immediately filled with the bluebell flames that had been popular among Gryffindors for the past couple of years. Ace's family gasped and applauded.

"Colin taught this to me!" Ace explained, stepping forward to show the flames to his grandparents. "Look, you can pick them up and hold them! You can keep them in a glass jar, too, and keep it in your pockets to keep you warm. Mine don't last that long, but Colin says with a little practice they'll last all day!"

The bluebell flames were duly passed around and admired. Emily nearly singed her hair with them, but Theo stopped her in time. After that she kept a portion of them in her hands, passing them back and forth and flicking her fingers through them. Theo made a mental note to look up some more stable flame charms, and also to teach Ace a proper warming charm. Did McGonagall not teach her lions how to keep warm, that they had to resort to jars of flames?

After that, Ace levitated some biscuits, turned a fork into a bell and back again, and spelled his mother's hair pink. He offered to put it back, but Julie stopped him and said it would be a festive look for the evening. Ace embarked on a long and involved story about how the Weasley twins had come to teach him to do that, and the magic demonstration seemed to be over.

"Come on," Emily said, tugging Theo towards the stairs. "It looks like they're done, so let's go upstairs."

Theo followed her up. At the top of the stairs she opened the right-hand door, revealing a small room with a bookshelf and a desk covered in stacks of papers. The odd box muggles called a computer sat on one end of the desk.

"This is my dad's study," Emily explained. "He lets me use his computer sometimes."

They sat down, and Emily pressed a button on a box under the desk, setting off a series of beeps and strange whirring noises. "It'll take a minute to boot up," she said. "I assume you don't know much about computers?"

Theo shook his head. "I can sort of use the one in the library, but I've no idea how it works. I think Daphne knows a little, but she's more interested in potions and....what do you call it, chemistry."

"Well, I can't say I entirely understand it either," Emily admitted. "Computers work on electricity, and they have lots of tiny pieces inside where the electricity is either on or off, which is like a one or a zero. And if you do all the maths, you can turn all sorts of things into numbers, which means you can manipulate them using the computer."

Theo blinked. "So when I put a word into the computer at the library, it does figuring with it?"

Emily nodded emphatically. "I don't understand exactly how that works, but probably it turns your search term into a string of numbers - A is one, B is two, that sort of thing - and then looks for a matching string of numbers among the entries it has for each book."

"But that would take ages!" Theo objected.

Emily shrugged. "Computers are fast. They say they're getting faster all the time." The box had lit up now, and Emily turned to it. "So this is running now. Let me show you a program I wrote."

Downstairs, Ace had wandered off to play with his new video games, and Ian turned on Thaddeus. "Exactly how much danger are the boys in at that school of yours, Thaddeus?"

Thaddeus raised one eyebrow, inviting elaboration.

"I know you said there's tension in your world, and Ace has only mentioned a few minor interactions, but Theo wasn't just upset about Ace's status. He was expecting to be attacked."

Thaddeus sighed, but answered. "Ace is not in any real danger. As we have discussed, his birth makes him the target of a certain amount of bullying, but it is unlikely to go beyond minor spells, easily reversed. If you would like, I would be happy to show him a few defensive spells, the sort of thing I showed Theophanes at his age, which might be useful."

"And if that war of yours starts up again?"

Thaddeus smiled slightly. "I would certainly have advance warning of any open violence, and in that case we will be able to get all four of you out of the country. All six of you, if Max and Pearl choose to come," he added, bowing slightly at Emily's grandparents.

"Okay, but how much danger is Theo in?" Julie asked.

Thaddeus hesitated. "More than your son, I admit. He is older, and our family commands a certain amount of respect in our community, which comes with a similar level of scrutiny. But he is well-trained and quick-witted, and I have every confidence in him," Thaddeus concluded, smiling with pride in his son.

"So you're saying Theo has been attacked before during conversations like this. Attacked with intent, I mean."

"He has, yes. There are those who consider his position....unbecoming. But he came out of those encounters victorious."

"Are there other schools to consider?" Mrs. Price asked.

Thaddeus spread his hands. "We are a small community, I'm afraid. The nearest other school is Beauxbatons, in the south of France. France is more liberal in their ideas, but against that you must weigh the disadvantages of a foreign language and culture. And Hogwarts is safe for Ace, despite the tension. Madam Pomfrey is a remarkably skilled healer, Professor Snape is one of the best potion masters in the world (and potions are vital to most healing), and Professor McGonagall is very protective of her students. I do not advise you to remove Ace, any more than I am removing Theo."

"Even so....Ace is only eleven. Will it get worse as he gets older?"

Thaddeus leaned forward in his chair. "It may, but Ace will likewise get stronger and quicker. And....there are certain forces at work which are stirring up the more radical elements among the blood purists at the moment. If all goes well, we hope to be able to reverse that trend shortly."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Mr. Price asked.

Thaddeus shrugged. "Nothing comes to mind, but I will certainly tell you if there is."

\---

Theo stifled a yawn, taking slow, deep breaths instead. It had been a pleasant evening, but a long one. Theo had played a simple guessing game with Emily's computer, and then had been summoned back downstairs to help teach Ace some basic defensive magic. Ace was too young to manage a Shield Charm, but they successfully taught him the Disarming charm and the Body-Bind curse, which would help him get away from any confrontations. At Theo's suggestion, they also covered the Warming charm. After the magic lesson, Emily's parents had pulled out a muggle activity called a puzzle, consisting of hundreds of punched cardboard shapes that had to be fit together. Theo and his father had exchanged glances over this, but participated willingly enough and carefully chose not to voice the temptation to just Reparo the entire thing.

After the puzzle the group had broken up into private conversations, while everyone picked slowly at the trays of cheese and meats and fruit. It was a pleasant way to spend an evening, but waiting until midnight made for a long night.

Next to Theo, Emily yawned and leaned her head against his shoulder, then pulled herself up again. Theo glanced sideways at her. She'd been getting fidgety as the evening progressed, and whenever someone mentioned midnight she'd seemed tense. Clearly something was making her nervous.

Theo stood up and extended his hand to Emily. "Let's step outside and get some fresh air," he said.

Emily blinked up at him, then smiled and took his hand. "That's a good idea. The cold will wake us up, too."

The night was very dark. Theo looked up, looking for stars, but the stars were never as clear at home as they were at Hogwarts. Still, he could pick out a few.

"It'll be midnight soon," he said softly.

Emily nodded tightly.

"What happens at midnight?" Theo asked, just as softly. "I can tell something is making you nervous, but I don't know what it is."

Emily groaned and covered her face with her hands. "I'm sorry! I forgot to mention it, and then....I don't know, I didn't know how to bring it up!"

Theo held her shoulders and chuckled. What he could see of her face looked sheepish, rather than really alarmed, so probably whatever it was, it was embarrassing rather than harmful. "It's okay. But what is it?"

Emily took a deep breath and leaned forward to rest her forehead against Theo's shoulder. "There's kissing at midnight. You count down from ten, and then you say 'Happy New Year!', and then there's kissing. Not, like, everyone, just people you would normally kiss I guess? And then there's a song people sing."

Theo chuckled again, wrapping his arms around Emily and pulling her closer. Okay. Kissing. They hadn't kissed yet, but that didn't mean he hadn't been thinking about it. On the other hand, the thought of having their first kiss in front of their parents wasn't appealing. Really, it was rather like the mistletoe problem many couples had at Hogwarts, which suggested a logical solution.

Theo brought one hand up to Emily's jaw and used it to encourage her to look up at him. He wasn't at all sure what he was doing, but it couldn't be that difficult if apes like Rosier had figured it out. Theo leaned forward to press his lips against Emily's.

The first kiss was...awkward. It felt stiff and off-center. But even so, the contact was exciting.

Emily gasped and looked up, smiling a little. Theo smiled crookedly down at her. "I thought we might as well get it over with."

Emily giggled and closed her eyes, tilting her head up for another kiss, so Theo tried again. He got properly lined up this time, and this kiss was warm and soft.

He broke the kiss, and Emily was still smiling, so he kissed her again, wrapping his arms around her.

Fifteen minutes later, they reentered the house, holding hands, pink-cheeked and happy. Thaddeus raised his eyebrow at his son, and Ian whispered something to Julie, but otherwise their entrance was unremarked.

Ian got up and began fiddling with the radio. "There's a radio program in London which will announce the new year," he explained.

The procedure turned out to be simple. Theo chanted the numbers with Emily and her family, called out "Happy New Year!" and, seeing that Ian and Julie turned to kiss each other, Theo leaned over and lightly kissed Emily. She blushed and smiled at him, and then turned away to kiss her parents on the cheek. Theo was surprised when Julie kissed the top of his head as well, but before he could respond she had moved across to kiss Thaddeus' cheek. Thaddeus returned the salute gravely before shaking hands with the other adults.

The radio was playing a song. The melody was familiar to Theo, but the words were not, so he hummed along contentedly while the others sang. Everyone was happy and sleepy and satisfied.

\---

"It would appear you and Emily have not, after all, dropped your connection," Thaddeus said at breakfast the next morning.

"No, Father," Theo agreed. "We have exchanged letters throughout the school year. I enjoy writing to her."

"I am glad to hear it. She's a sensible girl."

Theo fiddled briefly with his napkin, then stilled his fingers. "You didn't expect it to last this long."

Thaddeus shrugged. "I did not. School day romances rarely last. Young people are too prone to argument and misunderstanding."

Theo smiled down at the plate. "We have argued, a bit. But so far we've managed to sort it out."

Thaddeus nodded. "So I had assumed."

Theo took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders. "Very well, it has lasted this far. I do not want to abandon the connection. We may fall out in the future, and if we do then we will weather that as well as we can. If we do not...if we do not fall out, I do not know what happens next," he ended hesitantly. He clenched his jaw, prepared for what his father might say.

Thaddeus looked him in the eye for a long moment, then slowly nodded. "That is to be expected, Theophanes," he said gently. "Your uncertainty is perhaps no bad thing. The rashness of youth made me certain I would never regret swearing loyalty to Riddle, and I am pleased that you have heeded my lessons about caution."

Theo blinked. That was....unexpected. His father looked down, and the moment ended.

Thaddeus took a long sip of his tea, then replaced the cup in its saucer. "You said last summer that the future of our society largely depended on whether Mr. Potter or young Draco Malfoy was the first to step into a posture of leadership. At the time, we saw no way of predicting which would manage it."

Theo nodded.

"I believe that has changed now," Thaddeus added. "Potter has acquired a very valuable ally."

Theo raised his eyebrows, then relaxed them as he realized what his father was getting at. "If you mean me, Father, I am not certain I would count myself Potter's ally."

Thaddeus turned a hand over. "The exact description is perhaps indefinite, but the fact remains that you and your friends have materially assisted Potter in two different matters: you advised him in the pursuit of justice for Lord Black, and you prompted him to seek assistance in the matter of his dress, with the result that his appearance is consistent with his dignity. Furthermore, you reduced Malfoy's standing within the house."

"I also indirectly helped Weasley find something useful to do," Theo added, meditatively, "and Granger said I encouraged Potter to apply himself to their research."

"Indeed, though of course knowledge of magic is not the same as political standing. Still, the balance has begun to shift in favor of the pro-muggleborn side."

Theo tilted his head. "Do you regret that, Father?"

Thaddeus' lips tightened. "I...I do not know, to tell the truth. This path is safer for you than the alternative. But Dumbledore...Dumbledore is highly learned, but he is also very arrogant, and he does not always value our heritage as he should. Not the tracing of blood, that is, but our ceremonies and our family magics."

"Dumbledore has also been arrogant in his handling of Potter," Theo pointed out. "Potter already questions some of Dumbledore's decisions, and it will be Potter who has the most influence. There may be room to maneuver in that. Granger's thirst for knowledge might also be an advantage. Daphne says she has practically memorized _Hogwarts, A History_."

Thaddeus hummed thoughtfully. "If we can mitigate the risk presented by the Dark Lord, we will have to explore that further. In the meantime, attempting to influence matters would likely only distract from the primary goal."

"Yes, Father."

"Of course," Thaddeus continued, pointing at Theo, "if you and Emily continue your relationship, you will not be able to maintain a purely wizarding existence either. You cannot expect her to give up telephones and New Year's Eve and that computer thing."

"True, but by the same token, she cannot expect me to give up Flippy or Yule," Theo pointed out. "Perhaps it will even be a good opportunity for us to discuss what is truly important and what has been maintained out of habit."

That felt like a dubious leap of logic to Theo, but Thaddeus allowed it to pass unchallenged. "Perhaps," was all he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ian continues to imitate my father by buying music after he heard interviews with about it on NPR. Some of the music acquired that way has been excellent. Some of it....has not.


	19. Chapter 19

It was Granger who found the first clue to a possible solution. Because of course it was.

"I think I might have something," she announced when they met at the end of January, pulling a massive red-bound book from her bag. She dropped it on the table, but left it closed. "This is de Montmorency's _Magical and Social Development of Mediterranean Antiquity_. It's taken me ages to get through; the writing is totally impenetrable."

She spread her notes out on top of the book. "I was reading it as part of the history aspect of my research. I'd covered British Dark Lords pretty well, as well as Grindelwald, so I started looking for other Dark Lords that Riddle might have admired. One obvious possibility was Herpo the Foul, who invented the basilisk and was also a Parselmouth. This book has the most detailed biography of him that I could find."

Daphne leaned forward. "There weren't any books about him specifically? I thought our biography section was pretty extensive, and he was a magical pioneer."

Granger shrugged. "I didn't find any. _A Compendium of Dark Lords_ had a brief overview of the wars he caused, and _Obsolete Potions_ has a chapter about his potions research, but there was very little about his life."

Theo frowned, thinking. That might actually be a good sign. Daphne was right: there should be more information about Herpo the Foul. That the information was missing might mean that someone thought it was important enough to hide.

"The interesting thing is that Herpo the Foul came back from death multiple times," Granger went on. "He died in 880 BC, when Pericles Corinthianus beheaded him, but there were rumors at the time that his wraith was seen escaping. He reappeared six months later, following a lunar eclipse, and it is presumed that his followers used the eclipse to resurrect him. Fourteen years after that, he was killed again, and this time his body was reduced to ash. However, his army stayed active, and there are eyewitness reports that his army was led by a slave, constantly sickening but speaking with his voice."

Potter leaned forward. "That sounds like he was possessing them, like V-Riddle did to Quirrell."

"Exactly," Granger replied. "There's not enough detail to allow us to determine whether it's exactly the same, but it's as close as we're likely to get."

"So how did he finally die?" Weasley asked.

"The Egyptian magical conclave grew angry with him. It actually doesn't sound like he had attacked them directly, so I'm not sure what attracted their attention, but it probably doesn't matter. An Egyptian witch named Henit-heteput created a potion called Aekhut Nebut-chat-ti, which she and her temple claimed destroyed him utterly. It shook the ground and made darkness roll past - I'm not sure whether that's a literal account or just poetry - and Herpo the Foul was never heard from again."

"That's perfect!" Potter exclaimed, his eyes lighting up.

"Possibly not," Daphne warned him. "Many of the ancient Egyptian potion-making methods have been lost. But it's worth trying. Did you find the recipe, Granger?"

Granger shook her head. "I think it's in either _Elixers of the Ages_ or _The Wisdom of Sekhmet_ , but they're both in the Restricted Section, so we can't get them."

Daphne frowned. "You can't get a pass from McGonagall?"

Granger looked puzzled and didn't seem to know what to say. Daphne waved a hand and added, "Never mind, I'll get one from Snape."

Theo looked around the table. "Did anyone else find anything useful?"

"Not for defeating Riddle," Potter replied, shrugging. "I found some cool spells, but nothing like what we need."

Blaise leaned back in his chair. "In that case, we'll have to keep looking. In the meantime, how's your preparation for the Second Task shaping up? Nobody has seen you out by the Black Lake."

Potter looked puzzled. "By the Black Lake?"

"Krum has been seen diving into it several times a week," Blaise informed him, "and Delacour has scouted the area as well."

"Oh." Potter looked uncertain, and he shifted in his seat.

Theo narrowed his eyes. "You haven't solved the clue yet, have you?"

Potter reddened and dropped his eyes, which was answer enough. Granger turned on him.

"Harry, you said you had it under control!" she shrieked.

Potter shifted and mumbled something inaudible.

Daphne sighed. "Potter, go get your bloody egg. Stop being an idiot."

Potter stumbled out.

Granger was still fuming. "He knows it's important, and he knows that someone is trying to kill him, and he just.....arghh!"

"Relax, Granger, they haven't killed him yet," Daphne said, twirling her wand.

"From what you've told us, this is more preparation than he usually gets," Theo added.

"I suppose so."

"He said it made a loud screeching sound, didn't he?" Daphne asked, still twirling her wand. "And if it's in or near the lake, the egg is probably....thematically appropriate."

"Could it be Mermish?" Weasley asked. "Percy was going on and on this summer about his boss, Mr. Crouch, and he tried learning a little Mermish at one point, to impress him, I think. It was certainly screechy."

Daphne blinked, then sat up. "It might be. We do have merfolk in the lake. Good guess, Weasley."

"He said it was easier to understand underwear," Weasley offered.

Daphne stood up, then looked at Theo. "You're better at transfiguration than I am. Help me make a tub?"

By the time Potter returned, they had a tub of water waiting. Daphne unceremoniously grabbed the egg and dumped it in the tub. It burst open and began singing.

"So you have to last for an hour underwater and find something they stole. Straightforward enough," Theo concluded, when Potter had finished sticking his head in the tub and repeating the clue.

Potter grimaced. "No idea how I'm going to do that, though."

"The Bubble-head charm would allow you to breathe, but it's not an elegant solution," Daphne said, frowning.

"It's also a sixth-year charm. I'm not sure Harry could pull it off reliably," Granger pointed out.

"True. Well, we'll ask around. Someone may think of something."

"In the meantime, Daphne will work on getting the recipe for Aekhut Nebut-chat-ti, and the rest of us will keep looking, in case that doesn't pan out," Theo decided. "And Potter can switch to focusing on the Task for a bit. I believe the Americans have a sport that's played underwater, so you might look into that."

Potter nodded. He looked rather relieved, actually. Granger packed up her books, Weasley slung his arm across Potter's shoulders, and the three of them left.

Theo and his friends looked at each other. Theo vanished the water and reversed the transfiguration on the tub. Daphne crossed back to the table to collect her things.

"Do you think it will work?" Blaise asked.

Theo raised his brows. "Which part?"

Blaise shrugged. "Any of it, really."

Daphne sighed. "I'll look at Aekhut Nebut-chat-ti, but I'm not very hopeful. Even NEWT students don't cover ancient Egyptian potions in any detail - too much has been lost." She shook her head. "I wish we knew where Snape stands. This would be easier if I could consult him. Not necessarily possible, mind you, but at least less likely to blow up the castle."

"There's a lot of things that would be easier if we knew where Snape stands," Theo said sardonically. "Montague has been making noises about honor and cowardice and purity of blood again, and Snow isn't going to keep him in check."

Blaise leaned back, staring at the ceiling. "My mother says he was good friends with Potter's mother in school, even though she was a muggleborn. He had a crush on her for ages, but then he called her a mudblood in front of half the school and that was the end of that."

"I didn't know that," Theo said.

Blaise shrugged. "My mother told me about it when I was a firstie. Your father might not know; he's older than Snape, after all."

"So he started out friendly with a muggleborn, became a blood purist and a Death Eater, and then at some point successfully persuaded Dumbledore into believing he'd switched sides," Theo said.

"Which he may or may not have done," Blaise added.

"So who is he loyal to now?" Daphne asked.

Blaise raised his brows. "Himself, I imagine. But my mother believes that what he really wants is respect, particularly respect for his intelligence."

Theo frowned. "He won't get that from the Dark Lord, from what my father tells me."

"He might think the Dark Lord would at least make the other purebloods respect him," Daphne said dubiously.

Theo shook his head. "He's not such a fool. My father says the Dark Lord was increasingly erratic at the end of the last war."

"Also, he's a halfblood," Blaise put in.

"He's not exactly respected here, either," Theo said, considering the matter. "He could be doing brilliant potions research, but between teaching and being Head of House, not to mention brewing for the infirmary, I doubt he has time. He isn't a very good teacher, either."

"He did put himself between Potter and a werewolf," Daphne pointed out.

Blaise nodded slowly. "And managing an obscure piece of potions research might be its own reward."

Theo grimaced. "At the same time, he's a Death Eater. Loyal or not, he bears the Dark Lord's Mark, and that magic is not readily ignored."

Daphne nodded. "It's not a certain thing, and we've no room for error. I'll assume I'm on my own. Well, I'll have your assistance, and Granger's, but that's not the same."

"Right." Theo shouldered his book bag, but stopped before they left the room for the public space of the hallway. "What about Potter? What are his chances, and do we care?"

Blaise opened his mouth, stopped, then sighed and rolled his eyes. "If he drowns, Weasley will definitely blame us."

"Do we need him?" Daphne asked.

"You need Granger to check your research," Theo pointed out. "And, politically speaking, we've opened ourselves up enough that a triumphant Potter is the preferred outcome." It was true that they hadn't committed themselves, that they'd prevail regardless, but in the back of his mind he was also remembering Emily and the balance of power in the wizarding world. If Potter died, or was humiliated, Malfoy would be that much closer to taking control. Potter's wizarding world might accept Theo's friendship with Emily. Malfoy's never would.

"So we need him. And I can't have Granger too distracted by helping him," Daphne concluded.

"We could tip off the Weasley twins?" Blaise suggested.

Theo thought it over. "You mean they could solve Potter's problems, leaving Granger free to help with important matters?"

"That's....not a bad idea, actually. They're remarkably skilled," Daphne said.

"Hard to tip them off without exposing ourselves, though," Theo pointed out. "And we'd have no way of knowing what progress they were making."

Daphne folded her arms. "Well, it has no style and demonstrates no skill, but if Potter just wants to stay alive, he can always just use gillyweed. It wouldn't be hard to get some."

Blaise raised his eyebrows. "Remind me what that does?"

"It gives you gills. Depending on the amount you eat, it can also give you webbed feet."

Blaise mulled that over, then shrugged. "Send a note to Potter, suggest the use of gillyweed and suggest he consult the twins to refine his approach."

Theo nodded. "Done. I'll tell him where to get basic potions supplies as well, while I'm at it. He seems to be remarkably clueless about these things."

\---

"'What a full fortune does the thicklips owe, if he can carry't thus!'"

Theo, startled out of his own thoughts, took a minute to place the quote. It was from _Othello_. It was, in fact, the response to the Iago speech he had quoted at the beginning of the year, defending himself from Malfoy's accusations.

He turned from the Charms essay he was working on to see who was speaking. Florian MacMillan stood there, smirking at him. Theo remembered that MacMillan had asked where the speech was from.

"Found it, did you?" Theo asked, thinking hard. MacMillan was from a pureblood family, though one that had stayed more or less neutral in the war. If MacMillan had also read _Othello_ , had also discovered that muggles have wit and culture and fascinating ideas.....

"Took me a bit," MacMillan said, throwing himself into the chair opposite. "Got Flitwick to teach me the Lookup Charm, tried it in our library. I admit I might not have found it at all if I hadn't passed one of the posters for _Percy Weasley, Dementor Slayer_ and remembered that we're all exploring muggle culture now." His lip curled slightly as he spoke.

"So where did you find it?" Theo asked.

"Well, the muggle woman in that little entertainment at the end of last year read from a book, didn't she? And if muggles have books, it stands to reason they have libraries. It wasn't that hard to find one and use the Lookup Charm when it was empty."

Theo leaned forward, excited. "So you found it. What did you think of the play?"

"Pretty stuff. Wouldn't have thought the muggles had it in them. Not much depth, but that's to be expected."

Theo frowned. He wouldn't have described _Othello_ as lacking depth.

"....and it seems to be a rare thing, among muggles. I tried talking to a few of their girls, but I couldn't get much sense out of them, so I had to Obliviate them and let them go. It must be an uncommon trait that must be bred for, like blue-haired kneazles," MacMillan continued, watching Theo intently.

Theo tried to suppress his reaction, but he wasn't sure he succeeded. MacMillan was watching him far too closely for comfort.

"It might be," Theo finally replied. "It seems a pity to destroy indiscriminately if muggles are capable of something useful, but perhaps something could be managed."

MacMillan nodded. "Or perhaps it might be bred into the mudbloods, which would be convenient. In any case, do let me know if you find anything else worth looking into." He stood and wandered off, leaving Theo to his essay.

Theo scribbled out a conclusion to the essay, then forced himself to stay in his seat long enough to read the essay over and make a few minor changes. And then, slowly and calmly, he got up and went to look for Blaise and Daphne.

He found them in the room they'd claimed. Daphne was surrounded by books and scribbling in a notebook, and Blaise was testing color-change charms on muggle lip colorings.

"We may have a problem," Theo announced. "I think I screwed up."

\---

"Are you sure he noticed your interest?" Blaise asked when Theo had finished recounting his conversation with MacMillan.

Theo grimaced and shook his head. "I'm not sure of anything. I definitely showed too much excitement before I realized, and I'm not sure how much I showed on my face afterwards."

"It's only MacMillan," Daphne put in. "Do we have to be worried about him?"

Blaise shook his head. "He's bookish, but he's still a Slytherin, and he's not that oblivious."

"How bad is it?" Theo asked.

Blaise paced up and down the room. "The good news is that his family has never been connected to the Dark Lord, so it's unlikely that he'll go running to the nearest Death Eater. And they have no love for the Malfoys, either. On the other hand, he's got a lot of cousins, and they're well-connected. Someone may have a use for the information."

"So you think there's a risk of blackmail?" Theo asked.

Blaise shrugged. "That's the most likely risk. Or perhaps he won't see a use for it. Or perhaps he didn't notice in the first place."

Theo sighed and sat down. "I'll have to tell my father. He won't like it. Between this and the attack at the Yule Ball, it's getting a bit tense."

"I don't like that comment about muggle girls, either," Daphne put in, looking concerned. "I hope he doesn't have any bright ideas about breeding experiments."

Theo grimaced. "It didn't sound like it, but I hope so too." He thought back to his conversations with his father about the balance of power in the wizarding world. The only way to keep the muggles safe seemed to be to make sure that Potter was able to step into leadership.

"In the meantime, we have to think strategically," Blaise was saying. "You can't step back - Malfoy will count that as a victory. But you have to be careful, Theo."

Theo nodded. "I have to avoid rocking the boat any more than I have. Also we should probably think about a way to warn Ace if things go bad. Malfoy will definitely target him if things come out."

Daphne stood up, putting her books into her bag. "I have to meet with Granger anyway, to look at this potion translation. I'll see if she has any good ideas for warning Ace. The Gryffindors will protect him if he needs it."

Theo nodded, and Daphne strode out, leaving Theo to his worries.

\---

"You figured it out?" Potter asked, dropping his book bag on the table in their meeting room.

Daphne and Granger, surrounded by open texts and sheets of parchment, looked up from the notes they were comparing and glared at him.

"I think we let them alone for now, Potter," Blaise said. "They'll tell us what they want to tell us when they're ready."

"Right." Potter sat, and Weasley sat next to him. Theo wondered how long it would take them to start fidgeting.

It was only a minute later that Granger took a deep breath and looked up. "Right. Well, we've gotten somewhere. It's not perfect, and there's still a number of questions...."

"Start from the beginning, Hermione," Daphne said, chuckling. "We were able to find the recipe for Aekhut Nebut-chat-ti. The translation here is French, which thankfully Granger knows, and it also included an imprint of the original scroll, which we've been working on translating."

"My parents sent me muggle resources on hieroglyphics and hieratic," Granger put in, "along with books about Ancient Egyptian culture. With that and what the library here has, we've had a lot to work with."

Daphne grinned. "You lot owe us, believe me. The biggest problem is that Ancient Egyptian potions are impossible - quite a lot of them call for initial ingredient additions that should cause catastrophic failure. However, it turns out that the research I've been doing into muggle chemistry and buffered solutions may actually be the answer to that."

"Daphne's research is fascinating," Granger cut in. "She's shown me her experimental results, and they could revolutionize potion making. I'm excited to catch up to her in chemistry and see what other applications it might have."

"So you think the Egyptian wizards used those buffered solution things?" Theo asked.

Daphne nodded. "It's not listed in the recipe, but other texts mention the use of natron salts in potion-making. Our working theory is that all, or nearly all, of their potions began with a base of water and natron salts, such that they didn't bother specifying it in the recipe."

"So we can make it, then," Potter said.

Granger grimaced. "It's not that simple."

Daphne pulled over a sheet of parchment. "It's really not. We're pretty sure we have the ingredients translated correctly. Some of them will be expensive, but between Theo and Potter we'll be okay there. The measurements are a little harder, though we can use arithmancy to confirm our guesses."

"We'll probably still have to make multiple test batches, though we're keeping that as limited as possible, to reduce the cost," Hermione added.

Potter shrugged. "If it ends Riddle, it'll be worth it."

"The other big puzzle is the timing of the final simmer," Daphne continued. "The recipe says 'until songs of defiance are sung' which I assume means there was a song or series of songs used to time it. I have no idea what to do about that."

Theo frowned. "That sounds like a big problem."

"We can make some guesses using arithmancy," Granger said. "And there is likely to be a color change as well, but we'll have to see."

"Sounds like we'll have to try it and see," Potter decided.

"There is another problem," Daphne said, sounding reluctant. "We can't just make Crouch or Pettigrew use the potion."

Theo's brows drew together. "Why not?"

Daphne sighed and pushed a diagram towards him. "Because the potion isn't meant to be drunk. In order to use it, there needs to be seven people holding bowls of it and heating it, so Riddle breathes the fumes."

"Are the fumes dangerous?" Theo asked. "Other than to Riddle, I mean?"

Granger shook her head. "Those who are 'whole-hearted' will find the aroma pleasant, but 'the half-life' will suffer and die. And then the earth shakes and darkness passes, so there may be some danger there."

"We still need a seventh, though," Weasley said, frowning. "I could ask Sue, but I'm pretty sure her parents wouldn't want her to get involved."

"Would your father be interested?" Blaise murmured to Theo.

Theo shook his head. "We don't know what the Dark Mark might be capable of. And I'd prefer he stays out of it, in case we need help after."

"It should be Neville," Potter said, his voice unusually heavy. "It just...it should be him. Anyway, his parents are improving, and he said he owed us."

"Longbottom?" Blaise asked, frowning. "That might work. He's a good choice politically, too. Useful family."

"Okay," Theo said, reaching across to pick up the diagram. "Daphne and Granger, put together your order and let us know what it costs. Maybe Potter and I can split it?" he added, looking over at Potter.

Potter nodded. "Just let me know."

"And we'll work on brewing and start thinking about how to do this," Theo concluded.

\---

> Nott-
> 
> Could you send us a copy of the potion ritual? Ron and I can't help with the potion, but Ron's read a lot about ritual magic and we figure maybe we can help plan. I'm enclosing a drawing of the rooms I saw in my dream, so we have the basic layout. We'll have to figure out a way to figure out where the house is, too.
> 
> Harry Potter
> 
> PS - Hermione says the potion needs basilisk venom, so we're planning on going down to the Chamber this weekend to see if the basilisk is still usable. If you want to join us, meet in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom on Saturday at three in the afternoon, and bring a broomstick.

Theo passed the note to Blaise, then pulled out the ritual diagram to copy it.

"At least Potter is getting better at discretion," Blaise commented. "Do we join them on Saturday?"

"Might be interesting," Theo replied. "And it shouldn't be risky." Setting the ritual diagram aside, Theo picked up the rough sketch Potter had made of the Dark Lord's hiding place. It didn't tell him much.

Blaise leaned over to look at it. "How are we going to find it?"

Theo sighed. "I don't know. We could follow the imposter Moody - or even question him, perhaps - but there's no way to do that safely."

Blaise tapped Potter's diagram with his wand, creating a copy. "My mother's been to practically every wizarding house in England. Perhaps she'll recognize it."

Theo nodded. "I'll send a copy to my father as well. We might get lucky."

\---

> Theophanes,
> 
> I regret that I do not recognize the rooms described by Mr. Potter, but it occurs to me that a scrying spell may well work, as he has seen the place clearly. I enclose an appropriate map for the purpose; the instructions should be readily available in the library's Divination section.
> 
> I was able to show Daphne's research to certain acquaintances of mine, who agree that her arithmancy is correct. They have no advice to offer about the meaning of the songs of defiance, though they agree with her guess that the final simmer probably needs approximately half an hour.
> 
> As for the rest, be careful, Theophanes. When the Dark Lord fell, I was relieved, intensely relieved, that you would never have to know him. I can only regret the circumstances that bring you against him now.
> 
> I have ordered a vast quantity of healing and restoration potions, and Flippy and I have been studying the basics of healing and countering dark magic, in addition to procuring emergency portkeys to St. Mungo's. If you or your friends are injured, you will not find us ill-equipped to help you.
> 
> Madam Longbottom came for tea yesterday, and we had a lengthy and cordial conversation during which nothing was said but much was implied. If we are to throw in our lot with the pro-muggleborn side, she will be a canny ally, and we will have need of such.
> 
> Be careful, Theophanes.
> 
> Your humble and obedient servant,
> 
> Thaddeus Nott

\---

> Dear Emily,
> 
> I miss you. I miss being at home, where I can see you and sit with my father and not watch my every move.
> 
> It's funny; a year ago I was eager to finish Hogwarts and leave home, looking for adventure. My father and I did not know each other as well then, I think, or perhaps we did not trust each other. And it had never occurred to me that adventure waited right outside my front gate.
> 
> I'm in a strange mood tonight. Don't mind me. But I do miss you.
> 
> My classes are going well, I think, and our other project is proceeding surprisingly well. Daphne and Granger had a fairly brilliant breakthrough in potions research; if this works, and if it's ever safe to make public, they'll be able to publish it and receive the acclaim they are due. But there are still obstacles to overcome.
> 
> I think I'm scared, Emily. I wouldn't admit it to anyone but you. There is danger in our plan, though it is distant as of yet. More immediately, the school is rife with tension. My housemates were impressed by our arguments for a time, and refrained from open violence against those they think beneath them, but they're growing restless, and they watch me with suspicion. If I show weakness, I do not know how they will react.
> 
> I have mentioned the matter to those I know in Gryffindor, and they will be ready to protect Ace if need be. If worse comes to worst, I suppose I can finish my education in Morocco with my father, and your family could join us. But I worry.
> 
> Yours, as ever,
> 
> Theo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Those of you who have read *Dealing With Dragons* by Patricia C. Wrede may recognize de Montmorency, author of impenetrable but useful books everywhere. Those of you who have not read Dealing With Dragons and its sequels should strongly consider doing so :)
> 
> For those who aren't super immersed in the Harry Potter lore, Herpo the Foul is never mentioned in the Harry Potter books but is an established figure in the extended material as the inventor of both basilisks and horcruxes. The details of his life are my invention.
> 
> Since Snape had gillyweed in his supplies, it seems reasonable to assume that it's part of the Potions curriculum.


	20. Chapter 20

"Going somewhere, Nott?"

Theo stopped. Just his luck, running into Malfoy while on his way to meet the others to visit the Chamber of Secrets. He turned to face Malfoy, ostentatiously sighing as he did so.

"I suppose you want to come with me?" Theo sneered.

Malfoy was taken aback, but recovered quickly. "I've been hearing about you, Nott. You're keeping strange company these days."

Theo rolled his eyes. "I'm keeping the same company I always have. Blaise and Daphne are the only ones in this house with brains made of something more than cheese."

Malfoy scowled, so Theo smiled benignly at him. "Naturally I would welcome your company," he added. "Would you care to join me?"

Malfoy snorted. "Watch your back, Nott," he spat.

"And I hope you do as well," Theo replied politely, then turned and continued down the hall. He loosened his wand in its holster, in case he needed to shield against a hex aimed at his back, but a group of older students turned the corner just then, and Malfoy wouldn't attack in front of witnesses.

Theo counted 100 paces before he let himself stop and wait for his hands to stop trembling.

\---

Potter, Granger, and Weasley were all waiting just outside Moaning Myrtle's bathroom; Blaise and Daphne were not.

"Blaise and Daphne should be here soon. They said they'd meet us," Theo said, joining them. "Why are we waiting outside?"

Potter looked nervous, but didn't answer. Granger rolled her eyes. "Myrtle seems to have a crush on Harry, so he wanted to avoid her," she explained.

Theo raised his brows. "Can't blame you, mate."

They stood awkwardly for a minute, until Theo broke the silence. "Weasley, have you thought about our plan of attack?"

"Some," Weasley replied. "The ritual itself is pretty simple; our major challenge is getting there and taking everyone out. Pettigrew isn't much of a duelist. Hopefully Crouch will be distracted or asleep or something. My real concern is the snake. And locating the place, of course."

Theo nodded. "Actually, my father had a suggestion about that: Potter can probably use a scrying spell to find it. Blaise was going to look up the spell and bring the supplies today. I don't know about the snake, though. It's clearly magical, and probably resistant to most attacks."

"Actually, I was thinking about that," Granger said. "The snake is probably resistant to magical attacks, but probably not physical attacks. Daphne mentioned you managed to transfigure air into water at the beginning of the year?"

Theo nodded. "That's not a bad idea. Everything needs to breathe, after all, and with practice it should be a lot easier than it was then."

"Will it work fast enough?" Weasley asked.

"Probably. If we want something faster, we could try transfiguring the air into something corrosive instead. Most of the strong acids are fairly simple molecules," Hermione suggested.

Weasley looked both confused and horrified, and Theo couldn't blame him. "That would do it," he agreed. "We'll have to practice while the potions are brewing."

Daphne and Blaise arrived then, holding hands. "Thanks for waiting," Blaise said.

Theo nodded to them, and turned back to Potter. "Well, Potter? Ready to face the Gorgon?"

Weasley chuckled, and Potter play-punched Theo in the shoulder on his way to the door.

"Who's there?" came a voice as they crowded inside the empty bathroom. A moment later, a stringy-haired ghost stuck her head through the wall of one of the stalls. She seemed to brighten when she saw them, and floated the rest of the way into the open space. "Hello, Harry!" she cried, twisting her body in a manner she probably thought was coy. "Have you come to visit me?"

Apparently Potter hadn't been kidding. Potter didn't seem to know how to respond, but thankfully Granger stepped in. "It is nice to see you, Myrtle, but actually we need to visit the Chamber of Secrets again."

Myrtle looked at her, looked back at Potter, then burst into noisy tears and fled. The bathroom was filled with the sound of her crying, echoing off the walls so that she could have been anywhere.

Daphne rolled her eyes. "She's going to flood the bathroom again, isn't she?" she whispered.

Granger shrugged. "Probably. It can't be helped, really," she whispered back. "Harry, open the entrance so we can get out of here."

Potter counted the sinks, picked one, and stared intently at the taps. "Open," he muttered.

"Still English, mate," Weasley replied.

Potter sighed and stared some more, shifting his head back and forth slightly. He hissed at the sink, and the wall behind it slid open, revealing a wide tunnel.

"Can we really fly down that?" Blaise asked.

Potter shrugged. "I hope so. Fawkes flew us up last time, and he's got a pretty big wingspan."

"You haven't been back since?" Daphne asked.

Potter shrugged. "I nearly died down there. I wasn't in a hurry to get back."

"Fair enough," Theo said, cutting off Daphne's response. "Do you mind going first?"

"Sure." Potter pulled his broomstick from his pocket, dispelled the shrinking charm on it, and disappeared into the tunnel.

"Come on, Hermione," Weasley said, mounting his own broom and sitting forward so that Granger could get on behind him.

Once they were gone, Theo and his friends followed them down the tunnel. The tunnel was bigger on the inside than on the outside, giving them enough space to fly easily.

They landed in a rough stone chamber, and ignored the crunching of small bones under their feet as they followed Potter and Weasley over a pile of fallen rock and past a giant shed snake skin. Potter opened another set of doors, and they finally entered the Chamber of Secrets.

The center of the room was filled with a sixty-foot snake, its body three feet thick. Its eyes were closed, but its scales still gleamed venomous green, and the sharp fangs were visible in the half-open mouth.

They stopped and stared. Someone whistled.

"You know," Potter said slowly, "it's actually smaller than I remember."

"Harry!" exclaimed Granger.

Potter gestured vaguely at it. "I'm not saying it isn't huge or anything, Hermione, I just....in my memory it's even bigger."

"You were only twelve," Theo commented.

Potter nodded. "And it was moving around." He stepped forward. "So is it still useful?" he asked.

Daphne shook herself and walked forward to gently touch the scales. "I'm not an expert, but it doesn't seem to have decayed too badly." She approached the giant head.

"Careful," Blaise said, catching her elbow.

Daphne stopped to lean against Blaise for a moment, then kept going. "It's dead, and the eyes are closed. It should be safe enough."

Granger joined Daphne by the head, and together they siphoned some of the venom into a flask.

"That should be enough for now," Granger said, stoppering the flask firmly and tapping it with her wand to apply a protective charm.

Daphne nodded. "I wish we could explore properly," she said, looking around at the carved walls, "but it isn't safe."

"Maybe we could come back, after everything?" Blaise asked Potter. "We could bring Professor Snape and a cursebreaker or two."

"We could ask Bill. He's a cursebreaker," Weasley suggested.

"Yeah," Potter replied, looking around. "Yeah. We'll come back."

\---

Moaning Myrtle was still crying when they got back up, so they snuck back out into the hall.

"We should take the venom down to our brewing room," Daphne said, leading the way towards the dungeons.

"You have a brewing room?" Weasley asked, looking bewildered.

"It's just an unused classroom we took over," Daphne explained. "We've put some privacy spells on it, and brought in some furniture and equipment, and we use it for studying and brewing. Don't you have something similar?"

"Not really," Potter replied.

"Where do you go when you need to discuss something private?" Theo asked.

Potter frowned. "Just a corner of the common room, I guess. Or sometimes we go somewhere else. Or our bedroom is pretty private, if we find a time when Neville and Seamus and Dean aren't there."

Blaise and Theo exchanged glances, but didn't comment. Gryffindors had no head for strategy sometimes.

They arrived at their study room, and Daphne showed Granger where to put the basilisk venom. Potter and Weasley stood near the door for a minute, looking around.

"What's all that?" Potter asked, gesturing towards Blaise's stash of muggle cosmetics, neatly stacked in the corner.

Blaise grinned. "I've been experimenting with muggle cosmetic potions. They come up with some remarkable stuff. I've made a bit of a side business, repackaging and selling the best ones."

"Is _that_ how everyone is suddenly wearing body glitter?" Granger demanded. "Lavender and Parvati refused to believe me when I said it was a muggle product."

Blaise laughed. "Nice of you to expose my business practices, Granger."

Granger scowled, and Potter walked over to a desk pushed against one wall. "Theo, you said you had an idea for finding Riddle?"

"We do," Theo replied, happy to help head off whatever argument Granger seemed to want to start. "Blaise, did you bring the book?"

"I did," Blaise replied, pulling out a volume labeled _The Truth Is Out There_. He set it down on the table, then pulled out the map that Theo's father had sent them.

Potter looked worried. "I'm not much good at divination," he warned them.

Blaise waved away this objection. "Trelawney focuses too much on divining the future. Divining things that are happening or have happened is actually much easier."

Granger had come over for a closer look. "So how does it work?"

Blaise finished spreading out the map, and flipped open the book. "Actually, this one is dead easy. You take something small and pointy," he began, conjuring a pin, "hold it in your left hand over the map, and visualize the location you want to find. Once your mental picture is as clear as possible, you tap the pin with your wand, say ' _Asteri thavmatos_ ', and drop it." He suited his actions to his words, and the pin tumbled slowly down to stick neatly into London on the map.

"There you are," Blaise concluded, smiling. "If you use a magnifying glass - I've got one in my bag - you'll see that it's right on the location of the Leaky Cauldron."

"What if the location is Unmappable?" Granger asked.

"Then the pin falls without sticking," Blaise replied, referring to the book. "But making a location Unmappable is very complicated and difficult; if neither my mother nor Theo's father recognized it, it's unlikely that the Dark Lord is anywhere Unmappable."

"Anyway, in Potter's dream, a muggle had wandered in," Daphne added. "That couldn't happen if the building were Unmappable."

Potter picked up the pin. "Okay, let's get this over with. What was that spell again?"

" _Asteri thavmatos_ ," Granger prompted him.

Potter nodded, muttering the phrase under his breath a couple of times to get it fixed in his memory. He held the pin over the map and shut his eyes, focusing hard. Finally he tapped the pin with his wand and completed the spell.

The pin landed in the area east of Leeds. Blaise brought out his magnifying glass, and announced that it was a large house on the outskirts of a town called Little Hangleton.

"That's hundreds of miles from here," Theo said.

They all sat, studying the map and thinking.

"Do any of us live near there?" Granger asked. "My family is in London, which doesn't help."

The others shook their heads.

"The Montagues are in Manchester," Blaise said, "but we can't very well drop by for a visit."

Weasley squirmed a bit. "I think I have a cousin who lives in Manchester, actually. We don't talk much, though."

Theo studied him. "If we could visit them, Riddle would just be a couple hours away by broomstick. Why don't you talk to them?"

"Well, he's a squib," Weasley explained.

"So?" Potter asked.

"He's a squib," Weasley repeated, as if that explained everything.

"Ron!" Granger exclaimed.

"I thought the whole point of this was that not having magic isn't a good reason not to talk to people?" Daphne demanded.

Weasley threw his hands up. "I don't know! He's older than me. I only hear about him when Dad asks Mum what he's up to these days!"

"It still sounds like he may be able to help," Theo said firmly, speaking over Granger's incipient lecture. "Can you write him a letter? Is he on the Floo?"

Weasley shrugged. "I could write. Not sure what I'll say. Dunno about the Floo."

"Your dad hooked up the Dursleys to the Floo this summer to pick me up," Potter reminded him. "Maybe he can do the same for your cousin."

Blaise rolled his eyes. "You'd better let us help you draft that letter."

Weasley nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"And if that doesn't work, we'll have to find another option," Theo decided. "My father might be able to apparate all of us, though that would get very tiring, or maybe we could drive one of those cars? How long would that take?"

"Five or six hours. And we'd need someone to drive us, since we're too young to learn," Granger replied.

"What about the Knight Bus?" Potter asked. "I know it isn't the smoothest of rides...."

"It's also too public," Theo replied, shaking his head. "If this becomes public, we want it to be on our terms."

"We could polyjuice ourselves," Granger suggested. "I've made polyjuice before, and it takes a while but it isn't that hard."

Theo thought that over. "Very well," he decided. "Weasley's cousin would be preferable, but I suppose polyjuice and the Knight Bus is an acceptable option."

\---

> Dear Theo,
> 
> I'm so sorry. That sounds scary. I wish I could help somehow, but I don't think there's anything I can do. Thank you for telling me, though. I'm glad you can trust me.
> 
> I miss you too. I'm not going through anything scary, of course, but I wish I could see you more often. I wish we went to school together, or at least that you were at a school nearby and we could get ice cream and watch movies together on the weekends. I recently went to the movie theater with some friends and saw an American film called _Tall Tale_. It was very stupid, but it would still have been more fun if you were there.
> 
> The first crocuses are blooming in our yard. They always make me so happy. I'm enclosing a watercolor of them for you.
> 
> Be safe, Theo. I hope you come home soon.
> 
> Yours,
> 
> Emily

\---

Theo arrived at the brewing room a week later to find everyone else already there, including the new addition to their party.

"Longbottom," Theo greeted the other boy, while putting down his book bag and glancing around the room. Daphne and Granger were preparing ingredients for a trial of the Aekhut Nebut-chat-ti potion. Blaise and Potter were setting up shields so they could practice dueling, and Weasley was finding a page in a book of defensive charms. Longbottom didn't seem to know what to do with himself.

"How are your parents?" Theo asked Longbottom. "I haven't seen anything in the newspaper, but Potter mentioned they're improved."

Longbottom nodded. "Gran's kept it out of the papers. They're not all the way better, but the healers say they will be. They're talking now, and they know where they are." He seemed about to say something else, but decided not to.

Theo smiled. "I'm glad to hear it."

Longbottom nodded again. "Gran took me to see them when we went to Diagon Alley to get me my own wand. My dad wanted his back."

Theo frowned, and saw Blaise look up as well. "You were using your father's wand?" he asked. Inherited wands weren't unheard of, of course, but it still seemed distasteful.

Longbottom shrugged, but didn't answer.

"Are you used to your new wand yet?" Weasley asked. "I got mine this summer, and it took a bit."

"I'm still getting used to it," Longbottom admitted. "It's a lot more powerful than my father's."

"You mean it's a better fit than your father's," Theo pointed out.

Longbottom shrugged. "Yeah, maybe."

"Well, Potter and I are going to duel," Blaise put in, "and then I guess Longbottom should duel the winner."

"I wanted to try something I found," objected Weasley, looking up from his book.

Blaise sighed. "Fine, you can take winner after Longbottom."

Blaise and Potter faced off in their enclosure, and Longbottom settled in to watch them. Theo pulled out his notes on the air-to-acid transfiguration and began practicing.

 _Air to acid._ Theo focused his mind on the smallest possible space he could imagine as he flicked his wand. He counted his first couple attempts as meager successes; the tiniest puff and then nothing. But on the third try an orb the size of a snitch transformed in mid-air, splashing to the ground with a loud hiss. "Oy!" yelled Weasley as a droplet burned a hole in his robe. "Maybe set up a shield charm?"

Half an hour later, Potter had beaten both Blaise and Longbottom, but had stepped out to teach Longbottom some new charms rather than dueling Weasley. Blaise and Weasley were dueling, and Theo and Daphne had both succeeded in the acid transfiguration and were working on speed and accuracy.

Granger, who had been stirring the potion for the final simmer, suddenly began singing, first softly and then louder.

> _"Go on now, go, walk out the door_   
>  _Just turn around now_   
>  _'Cause you're not welcome anymore_   
>  _Weren't you the one who tried to break me with goodbye?_   
>  _You think I'd crumble?_   
>  _You think I'd lay down and die?_   
>  _Oh no, not I, I will survive_   
>  _Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive_   
>  _I've got all my life to live_   
>  _And I've got all my love to give and I'll survive_   
>  _I will survive...."_

Granger trailed off, apparently noticing where she was and that they were all staring at her.

"Take it off! It's done!" Daphne yelled, launching herself across the room to extinguish the flame under the potion.

"But there's still two minutes on the timer," Granger objected, helping Daphne seal and shift the cauldron.

Daphne chuckled. "'Until songs of defiance are sung!' It's not a reference to a specific time, it's a reference to the effect of the potion on the brewer!"

Granger blinked. "I guess that is a song of defiance, isn't it? But that's fascinating! I've never heard of a potion affecting the brewer like that? Do you think the song affects the potion?"

"No idea," Daphne replied, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "I've never heard of it either. And that was a muggle song, wasn't it? It certainly wasn't Egyptian, and I didn't recognize it."

Granger nodded. "It's an older song, and my dad is fond of it. And it's fun to sing."

"Right, so clearly the magic is concerned with the emotion of defiance, not the details of the song," concluded Daphne.

"So the potion is ready?" Theo cut in, before they could get too lost in the theory.

Granger cast a measuring charm, and nodded. "It's ready. And there's a Hogsmeade weekend in a week. Can we go then?"

Potter nodded, jaw set and eyes blazing. "It's time."

\---

> Dear Father,
> 
> We have already discussed every detail of this plan, but it may yet fail despite all our planning. I wanted to say that I appreciate all you have taught me, both as a child and in this past year. Whatever happens tomorrow, I will never regret the events that brought us together, working side by side as partners to shape the future.
> 
> I am proud to be your son, and I hope to make you proud as well.
> 
> Your humble and obedient servant,
> 
> Theophanes

\---

> Dear Emily,
> 
> Tomorrow morning we do this. We've found a solution, we've practiced the spells to make it as easy as possible, we've planned as well as we can. It's time.
> 
> I've written my will, just in case. I left you a few things. If this fails, I hope you will be happy, and I hope you will remember me.
> 
> If it does fail, you and your family should leave England. I know my father has made arrangements with your parents. I'm sorry for putting you in danger, but I see no help for it.
> 
> Perhaps it won't fail. You never know. Perhaps I'll come home and we'll sketch the flowers as they come out, and go to the movies, and I can meet your friends. Perhaps someday I can bring you to Hogwarts, and we can walk around the lake together and see the giant squid. I'm afraid that's rather less exciting than going to the movies, but I would enjoy it all the same.
> 
> I love you, Emily. Be well.
> 
> Yours, as ever,
> 
> Theo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure about the diameter of the tunnel, but Fawkes is described as being the size of a swan, and swans have six foot wingspans, so presumably it is also wide enough to accommodate a broomstick.
> 
> The book says the basilisk is twenty feet long, and the movies said sixty. I usually go with book canon, but I did a little googling and it turns out twenty-foot snakes exist, and they're not that scary. Dangerous, certainly, but hardly primordial monsters. So sixty feet it is.
> 
> Tl;dr - Rowling continues to be really bad at anything involving numbers.
> 
> Asteri thavmatos is based on the Greek for the Star of Wonder that guided the magi in the Bible.


	21. Chapter 21

"We said ten before ten, right?" Granger asked, checking her watch for the dozenth time.

"I'm sure they'll be here in time," Theo responded.

Potter had booked a room with an active Floo connection at the Three Broomsticks, and they'd planned to stagger their arrivals so that no one would realize they were working together. Blaise and Daphne were the last to arrive.

"Okay," Potter said when they arrived. "Do we have everything?"

Daphne and Weasley nodded, shouldering their packs.

"There's one more thing," Theo said, pulling out the package his father had sent him the day before. "My father said I was to open this just before we left."

He unrolled the leather case, revealing a row of seven tiny glass vials, filled with a liquid like molten gold.

Granger gasped, and Blaise whistled.

"That's Felix Felicis, isn't it?" Daphne asked, bending over to look carefully without touching.

Theo nodded. "There's a dose for each of us." He began handing them out.

"What is it?" Potter asked.

"It's Liquid Luck, Harry," Granger explained. "It's said to be terribly difficult to make, and of course it has terrible side effects if you use it too often, but it will make us lucky for as long as it lasts."

Theo nodded again, handing her a vial. "We have a good plan, of course, but my father wanted us to have luck as well. He thought it might help keep us safe."

"Thank him for us," Longbottom said quietly.

Theo passed the sixth vial to Weasley, then took the last for himself. They all looked at each other for a minute.

"Here's to victory," Theo said, uncapping his vial.

The others uncapped, saying "cheers" or "to victory" as they did so, and they all drank.

The potion took immediate effect, and they all felt calmer and more confident than they had. Weasley grinned and grabbed a handful of Floo powder.

"See you on the other side, mates," he said, and threw the powder in the fireplace. "Five Wellington Front!" he called, and was gone into the green flames. The others lined up and followed him.

\---

They tumbled into a tidy living room. The walls and couch were gray, and the bookshelves and chairs were blue, but they had the air of things that had been accumulated over time rather than furniture selected according to a particular design. A large desk was placed in front of the window, the papers on it carefully squared.

"So you're Ronald," said their host, a neatly-dressed gentleman with gray strands peppering his red hair.

"Yes, sir," said Weasley. "And you must be Cousin Lance." He stepped forward to allow the others to get up, and added, "These are my friends: Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Daphne Greengrass, Blaise Zabini, Harry Potter, and Theo Nott."

Lance Weasley shook hands with all of them, then cocked a brow at Potter. "Harry Potter, eh? I've heard about you."

Potter grimaced. "It's mostly exaggerated, sir."

"It would be, wouldn't it?" Mr. Weasley's eyes sharpened. "What's this business you lot have today, that takes you into my neck of the woods?"

Theo swallowed. He hadn't thought to ask what excuse they'd given, and he couldn't think of one now. The potion was still giving him confidence, but he didn't have a response.

Potter hesitated, then replied, "I'm afraid we can't tell you, sir." His eyes were steady, giving away nothing.

Mr. Weasley lifted his brows. "Taking a hand yourself, are you? Good lad. Oh, don't worry," he added, raising one hand when Potter seemed about to speak again. "I've had my own experiences with operational security. I'll ask no tricky questions."

"Thank you, sir," said Potter.

Mr. Weasley nodded, and added, "Just let me know if I can help. I assume it's near here, whatever it is?"

"Actually it's east of Leeds," replied Weasley. "We were going to fly over after tea. It'll only be a couple of hours."

"Leeds, eh?" said Mr. Weasley. "I have a friend over that way, you know. If you were to floo over to his house, it would save you some time."

"That would be great - if he can be trusted," said Potter. "No offense meant, of course, but-"

Mr. Weasley nodded. "None taken. He can be trusted. He's a muggleborn wizard, you know, who left when things were getting hot. We met back in the 70s, when we were both deployed in Ireland. But sit down and have your tea, and I'll call him afterwards."

\---

After tea, Mr. Weasley excused himself and picked up the telephone.

"Basil?" they heard. "It's Lance. How are you, mate?" Then, after a few friendly exchanges, "Listen, Basil, I have a rather large favor to ask you. It's a bit hush-hush. I need you to leave your floo and your back door open, and go out front where you can't see either of them for a bit - say, ten minutes."

A minute later, he chuckled and said, "Well, then I'd have to kill you. Thanks, mate."

He hung up and turned to his guests. "You're all set. One moment." He tossed a handful of floo powder into the fireplace and muttered the address so none of them could hear it. The flames flashed green, and he looked up. "Off you go, then."

Potter stepped forward to shake Mr. Weasley's hand. "Thank you, sir," he said earnestly.

As Mr. Weasley had said, the house they arrived in was empty, and the door was open to a small backyard. The seven of them pulled out their broomsticks and performed Disillusionment charms on each other, then took to the air.

Potter took off on his Firebolt, pulling up for a better view of the area and comparing it to their map. After a moment he returned to the rest and gestured south and east, calling, "That way!"

The air was chilly, but they were only flying for about fifteen minutes before Potter started spiraling down towards the ground. They landed in an overgrown cemetery near a small church, and removed the charms and stashed their broomsticks.

"It's only a couple of minutes from here. We'll walk the rest of the way," Potter explained.

The others nodded and they set off, walking single-file through old woods and overgrown fields.

Suddenly Potter stopped and gestured for silence. Theo obeyed, looking around for what Potter had noticed.

A rustle through the grass was followed by a series of shrieks, growls, and sudden thrashing. Theo strained his eyes, but couldn't see what's making it.

Potter turned around, stared at Weasley for a moment, then whispered, "Is this English?" Weasley nodded, and Potter continued, "There's a snake over there, a big one. I heard her hunting. I think she just caught something."

"That would be lucky," Granger whispered back. "A snake is most vulnerable while it's eating, since it can't easily move."

"Thank your dad for us, Nott," Weasley whispered.

Potter started creeping towards the snake, and a minute later they could all see her: nearly twenty feet long, and at least a foot thick. Her jaws were distended around what looked like a large badger.

"That's got to be Nagini," Daphne whispered. "If you focus, you can feel the dark magic on her."

Theo concentrated, and there it was: a prickling feeling on his skin. He nodded.

"So we do that air to acid transfiguration?" Granger asked.

Theo nodded. "It's a little harder to picture, since she's so big, but you've all seen where snake lungs are when dissecting snakes for potions. Daphne, you and I will aim at her left lung, two head-lengths back from her nose. Potter and Granger, you take the right lung, that takes up most of the middle of her body."

His suggestion was met by nods, and they fanned out to get a better aim. Granger counted down from three.

_Air to acid._

Theo could feel the transfiguration take hold, and the snake immediately started thrashing, flattening the grass with the coils of her body. Potter winced and put his fingers in his ears. Granger put a comforting hand on his shoulder, then cast a deafening hex on him.

The snake kept moving for far longer than seemed possible, but finally she lay still.

"Is it dead?" Blaise asked.

"I think so," Daphne replied, peering at it. She waved her wand, casting a diagnostic spell. "Yes. It's dead. One down, two to go."

They all took a deep breath, and shoulders loosened and then squared again. Granger took the hex off of Potter.

"Thanks," he said, smiling sheepishly at her.

"Okay," said Weasley, and they all started off through the grass again.

\---

Pettigrew was even easier. They saw him come out the back door, looking up into the sky to check the weather, and one quick Stupefy laid him out.

"Huh," Potter said, nudging him with the toe of his trainer. "Sirius has been chasing him for over a year now, you know."

"Better hit him a few more times," Blaise suggested. "We don't want him waking up."

Everyone took a turn casting Stupefy at Pettigrew, and Potter collected his wand. They left him on the ground and passed into the kitchen.

\---

The cavernous muggle kitchen was completely silent. Sunlight glanced off grimy cabinets, and thick dust muffled their footsteps. They crept through, following the footprints Pettigrew had left.

Creeping silently up the stairs, they arrived at the landing and Potter gasped and gestured at them to stop. The door in front of them was open, and they could see firelight reflecting off upholstered chairs and faded cushions. They had found the room from Potter's dream.

The big chair in front of the fire was turned away from them, and they couldn't hear anything except their own breathing and the crackle of the fire, but Potter was wincing and holding his head, so they must have found the Dark Lord.

Theo looked at the others. This was it. Weasley nodded to him, and he nodded back.

Carefully they crept into the room. This was the most dangerous part, and Theo hoped desperately that the Felix Felicis hadn't worn off yet.

Granger counted down from three, and they stepped forward in concert, unleashing the planned barrage of spells they had chosen: two Stupefies, one Obliviate, and three binding spells of varying levels of darkness. They ducked back, out of range of any spells, just as Potter managed to summon Riddle's wand.

There was no sound from the chair.

They stood for a minute, breathing hard and looking at each other. Finally Longbottom stepped forward and peeked around the edge of the chair. His face screwed up in revulsion, but he leaned further over for a better look.

"I think it worked?" he said.

Daphne and Blaise joined him. "How do we know?" asked Blaise.

Daphne swallowed, then slowly reached out and touched the dark bundle. She immediately drew her hand back, shaking it in disgust, but there was no response. "I guess it worked," she said.

"My scar still hurts, but not as bad," offered Potter.

Weasley dropped his pack and began pulling things out. "Okay, let's get this set up."

Theo nodded and stepped back so they could make their measurements. "Keep an eye out, and be ready to duck if he moves."

Weasley and Daphne paced out a circle around the chair and the still figure in it, placing bowls of potion at equal intervals. Everyone picked up a bowl and, at a nod from Daphne, applied warming charms to it.

Pale pink vapor rose from each bowl, spiraling in triple helixes. It smelled good: Theo picked out cherries and honey, clove and resin, making a complex and powerful scent.

The vapor coalesced in the center of the circle, covering the Dark Lord completely. It began to change color, from pearly pink to blood red to a brown the color of dried blood. There was no sound, but Potter screwed up his face in pain, and all of them could feel the magic slithering across their senses.

Suddenly the ground shook, knocking them to the floor and splashing potion everywhere. Theo looked up and saw that the cloud of vapor seemed to be shaking as well, and as the shaking of the earth subsided, the shaking of the vapor grew more and more violent, until it seemed to break apart and shatter into smoke.

The smoke dissipated, and they looked around and picked themselves up. Granger had been hit on the head when a book fell off the mantle, but she wasn't seriously injured. Blaise vanished the potion that had spilled on his robes, then turned to do Daphne's.

"Did we do it?" asked Longbottom.

Potter stood up, then sat back down again. "My scar has stopped hurting, but everything else is sore. I feel like I've run a marathon." Weasley clapped him on the shoulder.

Granger used her wand to sift through the pile of ash left on the chair. "He's gone," she said. She turned to Weasley and threw her arms around him. "I think we did it!"

Everyone seemed to be released from their tension. Daphne sighed and leaned back against Blaise, who wrapped his arms around her, murmuring into her ear. Theo crossed the room to shake hands with Longbottom and Potter.

"All right there, Potter?" he asked.

Potter nodded. "Feels like magical exhaustion, maybe. I'll be fine." He paused, then added, "Seeing as we killed Voldemort together, do you think we should be using each other's first names?"

Theo chuckled. "I suppose so. Harry. But only in private for now, if you don't mind. My housemates are suspicious enough as is."

Potter frowned. "Won't they back off now that Voldemort is dead?"

"Why?" Theo asked, surprised. "They weren't maintaining pureblood prejudices because the Dark Lord might come back, you know."

"Oh." Potter seemed to be thinking about that, but then he shivered. "Is it cold in here?"

It was getting colder. Theo glanced out the window and saw that the sky was getting darker. "The potion description said that the earth would shake, which has happened, and that darkness would pass over the earth. I guess this is the darkness. We'll wait it out."

Potter nodded, eyes closed. It was getting very dark. Theo sat down next to him.

_"I am deeply disappointed in you, Theophanes."_

_He had burst into his father's study and offended his visitors. His father would never be proud of him. His father would have banished him from the family, if only he had a brother to replace him as heir. As it was, his father would keep him, but only because there was no other choice....._

Granger gasped. Theo struggled to open his eyes. "It's not darkness," she cried. "It's dementors!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lance Weasley's proper name is Lancelot, by the way. Since his family didn't really welcome him, he joined the British military.
> 
> The scent of the potion is based on Blood Kiss by indie perfume house Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs. It's one of my favorite perfumes.
> 
> Final chapter and epilogue will be up tomorrow. Take care of yourselves and those you love and those who need it, friends.


	22. Chapter 22

Theo struggled to his feet. Potter had collapsed onto the floor, shivering violently. His skin was white.

The others joined them, crowding together against the cold and dark. The fire had gone out, and the room was freezing.

_Rain dripped on the casket..._

_His mother had gone away, everyone said. He would have to be a man now, but he didn't know how and he would certainly fail. Hands touched his arm, his shoulder. His mother had gone away._

"Harry!" Weasley cried, trying to shake Potter awake. Longbottom was crouched next to him, eyes closed and arms wrapped around himself.

"The spell is _Expecto Patronum_ , and you have to focus on a happy memory," Granger was saying. She tried it, the wand shaking in her hand, but nothing happened.

Theo struggled to raise his wand, seeing Blaise and Daphne do the same. Blaise got a white mist to come out for a moment, but it vanished as soon as it came.

The walls of the house shook. The windows outside were black as night. They tried again, shouting the spell, but nothing happened.

Suddenly the wall gave way and cold mist swirled in through the gaping hole, winding its way around their limbs. Dark forms glided towards them, slow but relentless. There were too many to count: their entire field of vision was filled with black robes and freezing spectral mist.

Granger moaned in despair. The dementors had reached them, and skeletal hands were reaching for her, pulling her forward.

Suddenly, with a whisper like tearing cobwebs, a streak of yellow light burst through the robe of the dementor grabbing Granger. It vanished almost immediately, but the dementor - and the dementor behind it, and the one behind it - crumbled to ash. Granger collapsed to the floor, trembling but unharmed.

The streak of yellow light appeared again, bursting through another pair of dementors and leaving ashes in its wake. The dementors were starting to notice, and some of them turned to face this new threat.

The yellow light appeared again and again, steadily thinning the mass of dementors. Theo watched, bemused, and noticed that the yellow light was in fact being left by an object of some kind, perhaps a short stick. Now that the cold wasn't drumming in his ears, he thought he could make out a voice in the distance, calling the same syllables over and over, but he couldn't make out what it was saying.

The dementors were almost gone now. Theo slid to the floor. His fingers hurt from the cold, and his mind felt fuzzy with tiredness.

Then everything was still, and the sunlight flooded the ruined room. Footsteps approached, firm on the carpet. They stopped.

"Ronald?" said a voice. "What in Merlin's name are you doing here?"

Theo squinted, trying to make out who it was. The voice seemed vaguely familiar.

"Percy???" said Weasley.

Theo blinked, hard. It was indeed Percy Weasley, dressed in a crisp pinstripe suit and holding his wand in one hand and a pale sharpened stick in the other.

"...don't know what our mother will say, not to mention Headmaster Dumbledore," he was saying. "Out of bounds, miles from the school, not to mention the dementors..."

"What did you do to the dementors, Percy?" Granger asked.

 _Not 'Granger',_ Theo thought. _Have to call her Hermione now. And Ron._

"As it happens, Mr. Crouch ordered me some months ago to investigate methods for killing dementors," Weasley explained, puffing himself up. "He had to give me quite a number of special dispensations, too: this is very dangerous magic, and it's restricted for good reason. But Mr. Crouch trusts me implicitly."

Ron started laughing, rather hysterically.

"I don't see what's so funny, Ronald," Weasley said sternly. "You're very lucky I happened to be checking our new dementor tracking map just when I was. You could easily have died, and it would have served you right."

Ron was still giggling. "You-you really are Percy Weasley: Dementor Slayer!" he managed to gasp out.

Weasley stared at him in consternation. "What on earth are you talking about?" he demanded.

 _Home,_ Theo thought. _Time to go home._ He reached into his robes and pulled out the emergency portkey his father had given him. He tried to tap the chain with his wand, and missed. Concentrating, he tried again, and this time he succeeded and the chain lengthened.

"Here," Theo grunted, offering the chain to the others. "Portkey."

Hermione held Harry with one hand and the chain with the other, and Ron did the same for Longbottom. Neville. Theo saw that Daphne and Blaise and Percy had all grabbed the chain, so he said "Luna per noctem" to activate it.

\---

"Theo!"

"Harry!"

"Hermione!"

"Good Lord, it's Percy Weasley!"

"Mum! Dad!"

"What happened to them?"

"Daphne!"

"Dementor exposure, madam, incurred while far out of bounds."

"Is everyone all right?"

"I've got Theo, Emily, you help Mr. Greengrass with Daphne."

"We need a stretcher here!"

"If it's dementor exposure, we'll need chocolate."

"It's all right, I can carry him."

"We is having chocolate, Professor Lupin sir. Flippy will be getting it."

A piece of chocolate was placed to his lips, and Theo's mind cleared as it melted across his tongue. They had arrived in a heap in his front garden, but they had been lifted and carried inside during the tumult of voices.

"You will do no such thing, Mr. Weasley." Thaddeus Nott's voice was somewhere close by. "This is a matter of grave importance and extreme delicacy, and you will hold your tongue until Lord Black and I have decided how to handle it. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. You might make yourself useful by fetching your parents. I am sure they would like to see that your brother is well."

Theo heard footsteps pass the bed he was lying on, and then pillows shifting to his left. He opened his eyes.

Thaddeus Nott was sitting in a conjured bed, much like Theo's own, with his left arm in a sling. The parlor was filled with conjured beds, and various adults were fluttering around them. Cyrus Greengrass was sitting between Daphne and Blaise, Madam Longbottom was sitting by Neville, Hermione had two adults who Theo did not recognize but guessed were her parents, Julie Harris seemed to be keeping Ron company, and Sirius Black and Professor Lupin were hovering by Harry's bed. Harry hadn't woken up yet, but everyone else seemed okay. Ian and Emily were helping Flippy distribute chocolate, and everyone was talking at once.

"It is good to see you safely home, Theophanes."

Theo turned his head to look at his father. He looked a little pale, but other than the sling seemed uninjured. "Thank you, Father. Are you well?"

"Well enough. The death of the Dark Lord was....unexpectedly painful. But it seems I am well now."

Theo nodded. "It was hard on Harry, too. We should have anticipated that."

"One cannot anticipate everything. You call him Harry now?"

Theo shrugged. "He says that, having killed the Dark Lord together, we might as well use each other's first names. He has a point."

"Indeed."

Across the room, Lord Black exclaimed; Harry had opened his eyes. An air of relief swept through the room. They had all survived.

"Father, how did all these people get here?" Theo asked, bemused.

Thaddeus' mouth quirked. "I had invited the Harrises to wait with me, as I knew they would share my worries, and I had also invited Lord Black and Madam Longbottom, so that we could coordinate a prompt response if it were to become necessary. Once they were here and we knew you had left, it seemed rude to keep the other parents in the dark. Lord Black asked that Mr. Lupin be included, Ian helped me track down Miss Granger's parents, and I sent owls to Cyrus and to Arthur Weasley. Unfortunately, given the state of affairs, there was no politic way to convey the full urgency of the matter to Mr. Weasley, and he merely replied that he would visit later today. I assume his son will be able to bring him."

"I expect so," Theo agreed.

His father continued, "Miranda Greengrass is working at St. Mungo's today, of course, but she will come when she has a moment to look you all over. It will be just as well to have her do so. And, as I think you know, Dame Zabini is out of the country."

Theo nodded. He was about to comment, but at that moment Emily spotted him.

"You're awake!" she said, running over to hug him.

Theo wrapped his arms around her, and she tucked her head against his neck, and for a moment they just sat, together. Finally she breathed deeply and straightened up.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"Appropriately rotten," he replied with a tired smile. "But we all survived, and that's pretty awesome."

Emily held out a bar of chocolate. "You should eat more chocolate. Mr. Lupin says it helps a lot. I was so scared when you all collapsed on the lawn! But everyone seems to be okay."

Theo bit into the chocolate, allowing it to warm him up. "It helps a lot. Thank you." He swallowed, then took her hand, relishing the contact. "It was terrifying, Emily," he whispered.

Emily leaned forward and kissed him softly. "I know. But it's over now, right?"

Theo nodded. "It's over."

Ian called Emily to help Daphne change her clothes, and Theo watched her go.

Thaddeus put his hand on Theo's arm, and Theo turned to look at him. Thaddeus smiled slightly. "I am glad you are home," he repeated.

Theo smiled too, and leaned back against the cushions. "Me too, Father." He took another bite of the chocolate.

They sat quietly, watching the others. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley showed up, full of exclamations and care for their son. Percy Weasley came with them, and stood in a corner of the room, watching. Mrs. Greengrass arrived, checked everyone's health, and confirmed that no one needed anything more than food and rest. Flippy provided platters of sandwiches and bowls of soup for lunch.

Hermione told the adults the story of what had happened, and everyone helped answer questions when they were done. The Weasleys and Grangers were appalled that their children had put themselves in such danger. Theo felt that Cyrus probably was as well, though he didn't say so, only watched the others, doubtlessly considering the best course forward, like Theo's father was. Madam Longbottom seemed only to be proud of Neville, and Neville seemed to be glad of it.

Professor Lupin turned to Percy Weasley. "What did you use to kill the dementors, Percy? They're thought to be amortal."

Percy stood very straight. "As you know, I am the trusted assistant of Mr. Crouch, Head of the Department of International Relations. In July, Mr. Crouch ordered me to investigate ways of tracking and killing dementors, and authorized me with several special dispensations for the project. I cannot go into detail about the weapon, as it involves very dangerous magics which are not for the general population to know about, but I created it from a start of rosemary taken from my mother's garden and planted with a drop of blood."

"May I see it?" Professor Lupin asked.

Percy hesitated, then withdrew it from his robes. "Please do not touch it. I am the only one authorized to handle this item," he warned, holding out the pale sharpened stick.

Professor Lupin nodded and looked closely at it. "Fascinating," he said. "And you use it by throwing it against them?

"A number of spells can be used, including a simple hovering charm. I used a combination of banishing and summoning charms for the majority of my attack."

Professor Lupin nodded and thanked Percy, and Percy carefully returned the stick to its hiding place.

Lord Black only had one question: what had happened to Pettigrew?

Hermione chewed her lip, but answered. "We-we left him just outside the house, stunned. I think probably the dementors got him."

Professor Lupin snorted. "Couldn't have happened to a nicer fellow," he muttered.

"Mr. Weasley," said Thaddeus, looking across the room at Percy to make it clear who he meant.

"Yes?" Percy asked.

"When the conversation is concluded, would you please return to the house in Little Hangleton to confirm the presence of Mr. Pettigrew's body? If he escaped, it would be well to be aware of the fact."

"Yes, sir."

There was not much more discussion. Eventually everyone returned to their lunch, which was only interrupted briefly when Percy returned with Pettigrew's body.

\---

Eventually the plates were cleared, and the conversation died down.

"You have all done a fine thing today," Madam Longbottom announced, "And we will certainly make use of the opportunity. In the meantime, I believe you young ones should all return to Hogwarts, where you belong."

"But they can't!" said Emily.

Madam Longbottom raised her eyebrow. "Why not, young lady?"

Emily was momentarily abashed, but then she straightened. "Theo has been attacked by his housemates for defending my brother this year. If they figure out what he did, they might do it again."

The adults were quiet, considering.

"Dumbledore...." started Mrs. Weasley.

"Dumbledore is unlikely to be any help in this instance," Cyrus replied, exchanging glances with Thaddeus.

"There does seem to be an awful lot of racism and bullying at Hogwarts," Dr. Granger agreed. "Dan and I have been seriously considering moving to France and sending Hermione to Beauxbatons after this year because of it."

"The problem," Thaddeus said deliberately, "is that the bullying is not only common among the students, but is condoned and even perpetrated by the staff."

Lord Black snarled "Snivellous," but Professor Lupin put a hand on his arm, and he fell silent.

Madam Longbottom tapped her parasol on the floor. "It is true that the School Board has received multiple complaints about Professor Snape over the years," she said. "Up until now, Professor Dumbledore has insisted, privately, that Professor Snape must continue his current role in preparation for the return of He Who Must Not Be Named. However, with the removal of that threat, perhaps Professor Snape might also be removed, or persuaded to quit."

"I don't think he likes teaching very much," Blaise put in.

"We may need him to teach, at least for now," said Madam Longbottom, "as qualified instructors are not easily come by. But removing his duties as Head of House would give him more time for research, if we could find a suitable replacement."

"The teachers' schedules must be insane anyway," said the other Dr. Granger. "I don't know about Professor Snape, but from what Hermione says, Professor McGonagall is expected to teach what? Twenty-eight classes a week? In addition to keeping up with the needs of her house."

"It's more like twenty-four, as the older years are combined, but you are correct that it leaves little time for additional work," agreed Professor Lupin.

"The idea of separating the role of Head of House is a novel one, and one which would have to be considered carefully," decided Madam Longbottom. "I believe, however, that I can persuade Professor Snape to step back from his Head of House duties on a temporary basis on a more informal level."

"That leaves the question of who," said Mr. Weasley.

"Is there anyone else on staff who could do it?" Ian asked.

Professor Lupin frowned. "I believe the only other Slytherins on staff are Septima Vector and Sibyl Trelawney. I don't think Septima has the necessary force of personality, and Sibyl....Sibyl is not well-suited to the role."

Ron snorted and muttered something that Theo couldn't hear.

"What about Andromeda?" Lord Black asked. "She's certainly not prejudiced against muggles."

Theo frowned briefly, then remembered that Lord Black's cousin, Andromeda Black, had been disowned after marrying a muggleborn.

"A fine idea," Madam Longbottom said, after a minute of consideration. "As she has been reinstated in the Black family, the others on the School Board have poor footing for objection. Would she be willing?"

Lord Black spread his hands. "She's been directing the effort to clear the Skye Highlands from lingering dark magic, but that wrapped up a few months ago. I believe she's finding herself at loose ends."

Madam Longbottom nodded. "If you would be so good as to speak to her about it, I will speak with young Severus Snape."

"You will find him in the infirmary," Thaddeus announced. "I asked the portrait of my ancestor, Thelonious Nott, to visit his frame in Hogwarts and learn what he could. He reports that Severus Snape, Barty Crouch Jr, and the real Alastor Moody are all in the infirmary. I imagine Snape and Crouch were affected by the death of the Dark Lord as I was, and Crouch's imposture was discovered in the course of his treatment."

Madam Longbottom bowed graciously, then swept out in the direction of the fireplace, followed by Lord Black.

"I'm surprised we haven't heard from Dumbledore," Professor Lupin mused. "He must know something happened, after all."

"I am certain he does know, from Professor Snape if through no other means," Thaddeus responded. "But Dumbledore has always preferred to keep his own counsel. The portraits report that he is holed up in his office, but they cannot say what he is doing."

Professor Lupin looked uncomfortable, but didn't object.

"But he thinks Harry's missing!" Mr. Weasley objected.

"He's lost track of students before," Dr. Granger remarked bitterly.

"I'm sure he knows best what to do first," Mrs Weasley said. "And Harry and the others will return soon, so there's no harm done."

Theo rolled his eyes but didn't comment. He was just grateful the Headmaster hadn't invaded the house.

Everyone fell quiet for a while, just resting together, until Lord Black returned with the news that Lady Andromeda had accepted the proposal.

"We should be getting back soon," said Blaise, sitting up.

Daphne agreed, and they began to get up and collect their things and say goodbye.

"You'll be all right?" Emily asked, cuddling against Theo.

Theo kissed her. "I think so. They haven't managed to land a hit on me yet."

"And if they do get nasty, you can always come bunk with us," Harry offered. "Or we could find an empty classroom or something."

"If it comes to that, we could just sleep in our brewing room," Daphne replied. "The wards I've put up will hold."

"And it won't come to that," said Lord Black, coming over to shake hands with Theo, as he was getting ready to leave. "Andromeda is delighted to help, and she's a force to be reckoned with."

"Thank you, sir," Theo replied.

Theo said goodbye to his father last. They clasped hands, but neither seemed to have anything to say. Finally Theo reached out and hugged his father, and that was enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Percy was of course tasked with Dementor-killing by Crouch Jr, who still fears them due to his time in Azkaban.
> 
> About the "Lady Andromeda" thing: In traditional British nobility, the daughter of a highly-ranked noble who married a commoner would retain "Lady [FirstName]" as a courtesy title. This doesn't actually apply to Andromeda Tonks, both because her father was probably from a cadet branch of the Black family and didn't have a title, and also (according to my historian friend) the pureblood society seems to more closely resemble the system used by Germanic nobility, which didn't have courtesy titles. However, in the words of TV Tropes: [Screw The Rules, I'm The Author](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem). I like "Lady Andromeda" so that's what she uses.


	23. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I posted the last chapter as well as the epilogue today, so if you missed Chapter 22 make sure you read it first!

Theo paused at the railing, looking out over the tiled courtyard where everyone had gathered before dinner. His father and Ian Harris were in a curtained alcove, working together to tie flies for their fishing trip in the Atlas Mountains the next morning. Emily was sitting on a stone bench by the fountain in the center of the courtyard, splashing her bare feet in the water. She smiled and waved to Theo.

Theo returned the smile and came down the stairs to join her, passing Julie, who was curled up with a book on a cushioned divan, and Ace, who was sending stinging jinxes at targets Flippy had conjured for him. Theo noted with amusement that Flippy had given in to Ace's requests and altered the targets to look like trolls, and they lurched and groaned and bled as Ace "killed" them. Ace seemed to enjoy it more than Theo remembered enjoying target practice at that age.

Theo sat down next to Emily, removed his shoes, and put his feet in the water also, close enough that their feet brushed. "Did you have a pleasant time at the hammam?" he asked.

"Mmmm," Emily sighed, leaning against him. "It was lovely. I feel buttery and boneless now."

Theo chuckled and put his arm around her. "I'll have to try it."

Flippy popped in. "There is being a letter for you, Master Theo," she said.

"I'll take it," Theo replied, holding his hand out. Flippy placed the envelope in his hand and popped away.

"It's from Daphne," he told Emily, reaching around her to unfold it.

> Dear Theo,
> 
> I hope you and Emily are enjoying Morocco. Thank you for your kind invitation: I've spoken to my parents, and they will allow me to visit for a day next week, and of course Blaise will come with me. Let us know which day will be most convenient.
> 
> Blaise is like a kneazle that caught a salamander these days. Apparently he's responsible for the rumor that Lord Malfoy is in poor health; he wrote to his mother shortly after our little adventure, expressing concern for Lord Malfoy's hospitalization, "given his ongoing weariness," and the gossip grew from there. I understand it is making Lord Malfoy's maneuvering much more difficult, to my father's great delight.
> 
> Wizarding society is currently much astonished by Lord Black, who has gleefully converted the first floor of the Black property in London to a muggle-style movie theater, and is inviting the wizarding public to come and watch entertainments there! He has screened _Percy Weasley: Dementor Slayer_ twice, as well as _E. T._ and something called _Star Wars_ , and a rather scandalous movie called _Pretty Woman_. Blaise and I attended one of the _Star Wars_ screenings, and it was most remarkable. Harry says there's a portrait of Lord Black's mother who initially caused a great deal of trouble, but she is now addicted to some muggle entertainment called "soap operas" and has calmed down significantly.
> 
> Harry and Neville seem to be doing well, by the way. I gather they meet often, and Harry has been talking with my father and Lady Longbottom as well as Lord Black about the upcoming Wizengamot session. He dislikes the necessity, but seems resigned. Muggleborn attendance at the Wizengamot has never been considered before, so sparks are bound to fly. Blaise says he wishes some of the Ravenclaws could sit in with their movie equipment to record it.
> 
> Yours, etc
> 
> Daphne Greengrass

"How is she?" Emily asked.

Theo folded the letter and replaced it in the envelope. "She seems well. She and Blaise are coming down next week for a day. Most of what she wrote is political, but she sounds happy."

"Your father said last night that the politics are shifting," Emily said, snuggling back into Theo's arms.

Theo nodded. "They are. My father has been talking to some of the others. And we hope Hogwarts will change even faster. Lady Andromeda and my father have been joining Dr. and Dr. Granger in petitioning to get muggle family members more access to their children while they are at Hogwarts."

"So maybe I'll get to see Hogwarts someday?" Emily asked.

Theo hesitated. For Emily to visit her brother might be a simple matter. For Emily to visit _him_ would be a much more complicated undertaking. Still, the balance of power was shifting. Perhaps in another year or two he would be able to introduce a muggle girlfriend to his social circle, if he and Blaise could strategize, and Harry continued to push, and his father and Madam Longbottom and Lord Black...

No, not perhaps, he told himself, finally committing to the decision he and his father had been dancing around all year. They would change the Wizarding world. Emily would be welcome there. Someday.

"Sounds like a plan," he finally said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end. Thank you so much to everyone who read and left comments! I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have.


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